MetroidxHalo: Stuck In The Middle With You
by Ghost1Who1Walks
Summary: Two of the galaxy's most renowned super soldiers cross paths when Metroid's Space Pirates set their sights on capturing a Forerunner Halo... Also features minor cameo appearances from Gears of War's Delta Squad.
1. Table for Two, Please

_"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you."_ –Stealer's Wheel

Chapter 1: Table for Two, Please

Personal Log of Samus Aran: Log File 11700

There are some days when I regret my choice of profession. I've lost count of the vacations and leisure trips that have been interrupted by the call of duty; what good is earning money if you never have the time to spend it? At least it seems the Galactic Federation has finally found a good reason to pull me away from my R a Space Pirate fleet has been spotted traveling through Federation territory. It was hard to miss them; the Pirates had deployed several dozen ships of varying sizes. While this alone was enough to send the Federation into full-on panic mode, the Pirate fleet's behavior is even more disconcerting; it has repeatedly ignored Federation colonies and installations during its exodus. Even the vulnerable, certainly appealing targets have been passed up in favor of their apparent destination; the borders of explored space. Something is up with the Space Pirates. And the last time something was up with the Space Pirates, they had uncovered the highly radioactive mutagenic material known as Phazon. Naturally, being the Federation's leading expert on killing Pirates, I was commissioned to follow the fleet to its objective and either destroy the fleet, take the objective for the Federation, or both. While I hope for a smoothly-executed mission, past encounters with the Pirates do not make that seem likely.

***

There were some days when the Master Chief regretted his choice of profession. Well, he would, if he had been given a choice. As it stood, he supposed, there are worse things than being trained and modified since childhood to be a living weapon. After all, you could end up being a bounty hunter; those guys never seem to get any respect, especially not from the military. But between fighting an uphill battle with the Covenant, trying to find and stop a series of super weapons that could kill all life in the universe and keeping the Flood from escaping captivity, what he wouldn't give for a few vacation days. There was always another crisis around the corner, and the Master Chief wished he could be given a respite every now and then, if only a short one.

_Chief, focus!_ Of course, as the AI program residing in his armor had just told him as he ducked out of the way of a plasma bolt, the middle of a firefight was not the best time for wandering thoughts. His mind quickly ran over the situation; the USNC had located another Halo and had sent him with a battalion to destroy it. But as per usual, the Covenant had beaten them to the punch, and were now fighting them in a vicious ground war over control of their "sacred ring." The valley he and his unit were trying to pass through was crawling with Covenant soldiers, and the now-blasted landscape reflected their hour-long struggle. Both of them were too dug in, too well-fortified; someone needed to break this little stalemate of theirs.

_Guess whose job that is?_

"Did I say that out loud?"

Cortana scoffed teasingly. _Don't think you were the only one who had come to that conclusion._

"You could've at least told me."

"Master Chief, sir! Sir!" One of the marines on their left flank was calling to him in near panic. Ducking along the rocks they were using as cover, the Chief made his way over to the marine.

"What is it, soldier? Covenant trying to out-flank us?"

_Uh-oh._

Through Master Chief's visor, Cortana could see that the soldier was looking at a portable scanner; he must be the team's tech expert. On the device's screen was a motion-detecting radar showing a huge mass of bogeys approaching the ridge to their left, directly in between the marines and the Covenant.

"N-No, sir! Unidentified energy signatures!"

The Chief focused on the ridge in question. "Looks like somebody else is coming to join the party."

They broke into view with a thunderous, collective roar that rose above the din of the continuing battle. While definitely alien, they were also definitely not Covenant, with a somewhat humanoid body structure covered with various armor pieces and equipment. Their relatively thin limbs ended in clawed appendages, and the alien beings were armed to the teeth. They moved with speed and agility, leaping high into the air to catch the attention of both sides and silence their own fighting. The strange attackers were on top of the Covenant first, firing rapid bursts of energy from guns mounted on their arms and extending small scythes from their wrists to slash at foes in arm's reach. The stunned Grunts fell like flimsy shacks before a raging hurricane, and the ones that survived the initial charge broke and ran, screaming. The Elites lasted a bit longer, holding their own against the attackers before being overwhelmed by superior numbers with the loss of their Grunts. Most of the Jackals ran as well, and the few that stood their ground managed to inflict some damage before the Elites protecting them fell, and then they followed suit. A second group of attackers appeared, their attention now on the stunned marines.

"Aw man, Chief, sir, if they did that to those Covenant buggers, what're they gonna do to us?!"

"Calm down, son, we've got a lot more guts than the Covenant."

_Yeah, and they're gonna end up all over the ground if we don't do something fast._

"Don't you start chickening out too, Cortana." The Chief loaded a fresh clip into his rifle. "Come on, let's show them who they're dealing with."

***

Samus had seen quite a few strange things in her days battling the Space Pirates. A huge, living cyborg brain. Ghosts of insane Chozo. A planet trapped between two dimensions. This, however; this bizarre circular space station as large around as a standard-size moon and apparently with its own atmosphere and plant and animal life despite its strange shape; it certainly wasn't at the top of the list, but it earned a close rank. She perused the readings her ship's scanners were giving her; the bulk of the Pirate fleet had landed on the far side of the ring, while a small strike force had broken off from the group and landed in a mountainous area directly below her position. It made sense that while the majority of the fleet set about constructing a base for themselves, they would send a team of their better fighters off to start searching for their objective. It seemed like they were expecting a tough fight to come knocking on their doorsteps; Samus smirked, she wouldn't want to disappoint them. As she instructed her ship's auto-pilot, Samus opened the compartment holding her Power Suit and started getting herself dressed for work.

***

It had been vicious. Lacking in melee weapons of their own and faced with a foe that sought to close the distance as quickly as possible, casualties had already been heavy as several marines found themselves gutted within the first few minutes. But then the unit sent to rout the Covenant squad had returned, and things got really hairy. It was all the Chief could do to keep himself from being buried under the weight of enemy soldiers. He had been backed into a corner for who knows how long, felling dozens of attackers as he fought with a fury he was rarely forced to use, finally gaining a respite as his few remaining opponents hesitated and then fled. After taking a moment to catch his breath, the Chief emerged from his little alcove to find that the battlefield had become a slaughterhouse. He was used to the horrors of war; how could he not be? This, however...this was downright despicable. The ground was littered with the brutalized corpses of both Covenant and human, their bodies insultingly stripped clean of weapons and equipment by the aliens who had killed them. Who are these beasts, he thought to himself, these creatures who take the ferocity practiced by the Covenant to an entirely different level?

_These poor souls…_

"Cortana..." In the midst of the carnage, he'd forgotten about the fragile little AI program that had been hitch-hiking on his armor's computer for some time now. She usually kept silent during battles such as these, and the Chief realized that it was obviously with good reason. It was different for him, when the "kill or be killed" instinct took over. But for her, who could only stand by and watch, a powerless observer with a front-row seat for the madness of war, it must be incredibly hard to deal with. But there would be time for mourning later; when given the choice between avenge and mourn, the Master Chief would gladly choose avenge. "There's nothing we can do for them at the moment. I need to know who the hell those guys were and where they came from. Are you getting anything from Covenant transmissions?"

_Nothing conclusive. Mostly outrage over the slaughter and vows to bring down these "devils" as they've taken to calling them…_

Master Chief scoffed. "Suddenly I don't feel so special anymore."

_It seems our visitors have landed a hefty fleet on the far side of the Halo._

"Then that's where we're headed. Whatever they're here for, it can't be good."

_Whatever you say, Chie-_ Cortana paused, then shouted_ Wait! I'm picking up something closing in on us!_

"What is it? Covenant?"

_I'm not sure. Stay sharp, Chief, it's closing fast!_

He didn't have much time to contemplate the warning before the cause for alarm came into view; a strange humanoid clad in bright orange armor with a wicked-looking gun attached to the right arm.

***

Samus tilted her head to the side at the sight of this strange soldier. Green armor covered most of his body, framing an orange visor that covered and concealed his entire face. Strange, she thought, is there some significance with his relation to her colors? Is he using Chozo technology too? Another bounty hunter wielding powers stolen from the race that sired her? Of course, why limit herself to asking questions? A simple command activated her suit's sensors and they began scanning the soldier.

***

"If he's Covenant, somebody should tell him to stop ripping off my color scheme."

_Take it easy for a second, Chief. Maybe this guy's not a threat._

He realized the murder of his troops had enraged him more than he had thought; he needed something to shoot at, badly. The Spartan equivalent of venting, he imagined. "Yeah, and I suppose that cannon on his arm is for blending smoothies. Either he's Covenant, or he's one of those new guys. And either way, I'm bringing him down."

Drawing an SMG with one hand and a Plasma Rifle with the other, Master Chief took aim at the stranger and opened fire with a burst of bullets from the SMG.

***

The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off of the shield surrounding Samus' Power Suit, causing the Hunter a great deal of confusion. This...this stranger was using metal-encased projectiles? Without any sort of energy or plasma enhancement? Regardless, if he fired upon her, that must mean he is a threat. Samus' Power Beam began humming as she charged it up and brought it to level with the soldier.

***

The Chief quickly ducked under a ricochet "Uh-oh."

_Chief-!_

The Master Chief took a rolling dodge to avoid the large energy blast that erupted from the stranger's arm gun.

"I think I'm gonna need a bigger weapon."

Normally, this would be the time where he would start searching the ground for something suitable. But seeing as the mysterious attackers had grabbed most of weaponry, the Chief would need to make do with what he had on him until he could find something else. Holstering the SMG with one hand while firing the Plasma Rifle with the other, he ran for some cover. He was happy to see that the Plasma Rifle's shots had actually made some impact, albeit not a large one. Regardless, it was a start.

***

Samus shielded her face from the blue energy bolts, her brow furrowed. It was nice to see this guy wasn't going to be some pushover, but the weapons he was using were completely alien; her scans so far had been largely inconclusive, but the one thing they could tell her was that he wasn't using an ounce of Chozo technology. On the plus side, it meant she wouldn't end up facing her own weaponry being against her. But this might be something entirely new, something beyond Chozo standards. Fingering the button for Missiles, she approached her foe's hiding place with caution.

***

_You really think this guy's going to stand around and wait for it to blow up?_ Cortana said skeptically.

"I'm kinda hoping he won't know what it is."

The piggybacking AI sighed _Yes, because nobody uses handheld spheres for explosives anymore._

His back pressed against his cover, the Chief leaned his head out to take a look. The moment orange visor met with green visor a few feet away, both armored soldiers went into action; Samus aiming her Arm Cannon and pressing the Missile button, the Chief tossing the frag grenade from his hand. The two explosives met in mid-air, delivering a proportionately powerful detonation that hurled Samus back several feet and depositing her on her rear. Shielded from the majority of the blast by his cover, the Chief took a peek to see how his target had fared.

"Oh, there is no way he survived that."

_You've lived through worse._

"Yeah, and?"

Lo and behold, however, as the dust cleared, the Chief could see the orange-clad stranger sitting several feet away, shaking her head to brush off the shock of the explosion. Maybe he was just imagining things, but he could swear he could see a very angry glare coming from behind visor as she raised her Arm Cannon and pointed it at his face. The Spartan dove across the ground into a roll to avoid her shots, taking another leap towards a Needler lying obscured in a small ditch. Grabbing it as he landed, he emptied the weapon's entire clip at Samus in a single continuous burst. Instead of puncturing the target, however the purple shards simply burst on impact with Samus' shielding.

"That thing's really starting to piss me off."

***

This guy was really starting to piss her off. Fighting Space Pirates all her life had given her some rather irritating situations, like when that one Trooper had lunged at her with his scythe, missed, tripped, and ended up stabbing a crate full of Phazon behind them, killing himself and blowing out one of her Energy Tanks in the ensuing explosion. But tossing a grenade into her Missile placed this stranger near the top of her list. To hell with taking the cautious approach; this guy had to die.

***

Samus had been shielding her face from the Needler shots with her free hand, and as soon as the barrage ended she brought her fully charged Arm Cannon out from behind her back and let loose. The sudden attack caught the Chief by surprise, and the burst of energy threw him back against the cliff wall behind him and crippled his shields. He quickly shook off the shock of the two impacts and looked back up to see that…his opponent was gone.

"Where'd he-?"

_Chief, above you!_

The Spartan looked up in time to see Samus, having leapt several feet into the air up and towards him, aiming another Missile in his direction. He rolled away from the first shot, which cracked the wall where he had been standing, and took a leap of his own to escape the second shot. Samus landed on the spot where her first shot hit, but instead of attempt to give chase, she simply flicked her left wrist forward, snapping forward a small latch-like device that flung out a stream of energy and hooked itself onto the Master Chief's shoulder. A single yank on the Grapple Beam, and the Chief was sent flying backwards. Instead of simply go with flow, however, the Chief twisted himself as he flew through the air and rammed his elbow into Samus' face when he was close enough, knocking the bounty hunter off her feet and landing on his side himself. As he rolled into a crouching position, he muttered "At least that still works."

Not waiting for his opponent to recover her balance, he leapt at Samus, ready to attack again. As he hurtled through the air, Samus simply stared at him for a moment, then leaned forward and…disappeared. As the Chief landed, he took notice of two things; the first, that Samus was suddenly standing behind him, the second that there were suddenly small glowing orbs lying at his feet.

"Those can't be-"

_See? Universal concept._

The Morph Bombs went off like very violent firecrackers, tossing the Spartan a few feet into the air. The Grapple Beam snatched him out of the air again, this time pulling him forward too quickly for him to react. As he landed in front of Samus, her free hand grabbed his chest plate and pulled him forward until they were face-to-face, while the business end of her Arm Cannon was shoved under his chin. Samus glared at her opponent through their visors, so concentrated on her anger towards this stranger that she didn't notice her HUD alerting her to the approach of a dozen Pirate Troopers approaching her from behind until they were right on top of them. She pushed the Master Chief away leapt backwards to give her some space, and turned her gaze up towards the cliffside.

***

_I think our friend may have called in reinforcements, Chief._ Cortana reported dryly as the Chief regained his footing. _I'm picking up a dozen alien energy signatures catching up with us._

"I think we can officially say this has been a bad day."

The Space Pirates burst into view, taking a flying leap from the ridge behind the Chief. To the surprise of both, Samus immediately opened fire on the new arrivals, knocking one out of the air with a charged shot and firing furiously at his comrades.

"...Huh."

_Chief, I'm getting the feeling that maaaaaybe we were a bit hasty. Our friend here doesn't seem to be an ally of the aliens that attacked us; now might be a good time to lend a hand and show a gesture of our good will, hm?_ Cortana said in a very prompting tone.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you."

A Pirate, completely ignoring the Chief, landed a few feet in front of him to get another angle at attacking Samus. Master Chief taught him to pay attention to his surroundings by peppering him with SMG bullets at point-blank range. Samus had backed herself into a corner, keeping her back to the wall ass he fired on the Pirates. Holding her own, she seemed to falter briefly when she noticed the cyborg charge up and drive his fist into the neck of the nearest Pirate, finally alerting the surviving attackers to his presence. Samus took the opportunity to unload two more charged blasts into the distracted attackers, felling one and wounding the other. Realizing that they had lost their offensive advantage, the Pirates turned and fled, and the two watched them leave. They turned and looked at each other, and an awkward silence ensued.

"Alright, here's the thing." Chief started, not wanting another prodding from Cortana. Samus stared at him blankly from behind her visor. "My squad's been wiped out. The area's crawling with those clowns from the Covenant, and now those new jokers too. And we're stuck here, in the middle of them both. As much as I like playing the lone soldier, I would prefer having someone watch my back rather than shoot it. Sound good?"

The orange-clad stranger continued staring at him for a minute, apparently weighing her options, before responding in a feminine voice that the Chief found mildly surprising. "Agreed."

_Now, see Chief? Being a diplomat without using your trigger finger isn't so hard, is it?_

The Spartan ignored Cortana's teasing. "Glad to hear it. The name's John-117, but most prefer to call me by my rank, the Master Chief. You?"

"I am Samus Aran, a bounty hunter."

Master Chief offered his hand to Samus. "You seem like a pretty tough guy, Samus, it'll be a pleasure working alongside you."

Samus laughed lightly, then reached up with 'his' free hand, clasped a latch on the underside of 'his' helmet, and pulled the helmet off. A woman's soft face emerged from under flowing golden hair, almost the complete opposite of her cold and hard exterior, and the Chief froze.

_Chief-? Your heart rate just spiked, are you alright? Were you wounded at some point? _ Cortana must not have been looking through the Chief's eyes if she was asking that question. 'A pleasure indeed.' he thought almost absent-mindedly.


	2. Getting Dressed to Kill

Chapter 2: Getting Dressed to Kill

"Now, let me see if I understand this correctly."

Master Chief nodded to allow her to continue.

"On the one side we have the Space Pirate armada I'd followed here."

"Uh-huh."

"On the other we have these…Covenant?"

"Yes, they call themselves the Covenant." He nodded again.

"And you say you have yet to make contact with your command ship, correct?"

The Spartan shrugged. "I've been calling and no one's picking up the phone."

_Actually, I'VE been calling._

Samus glanced around to find the source of the voice. "Who said that?"

"That would be Cortana." The Chief replied, tapping the side of his helmet. "She's the AI construct that lives in my head."

_A pleasure, Samus._

"I…see. Fascinating." Her concentration momentarily lost, Samus quickly regained her focus. "So, yes, you've had no word from your commander and other comrades."

"Yup."

"Just out of curiosity, would you happen to have any good news for me?"

"That we just so happen to be the two deadliest gunslingers around?"

The bounty hunter nodded. "I guess that's a start."

_A start towards what, though? You're the one most familiar with these Space Pirates, Samus, can you give us something we can work with?_

Samus caught herself again looking for the source of the voice instinctively. "That will certainly take some getting used to." she thought to herself.

"Well, first off, we may be fairly formidable, but we have too much going against us for that alone to matter. We're in a warzone here, and trying to drive off the Pirates while keeping the Covenant off our backs isn't going to be easy when they're throwing entire armies at each other."

"Can't say I've had too much luck dealing with that kind of situation myself." Chief replied, somewhat less than fondly remembering his efforts to destroy Alpha Halo while the Flood and Covenant battled across its surface.

_Which means we need back-up. Which means we need to find In Amber Clad and Commander Keyes. And without any radio contact, that…could take awhile._

"Until we find some way to reach your allies, we'll need to do whatever we can to ensure our continued survival. If we're going to be tackling armies, I'm going to need to go back to my ship and pick up some additional equipment. Care to accompany me?"

The Master Chief nodded and gestured forward. "Lead the way."

***

The two armored warriors managed to back track their way Samus' gunship without incident, which the Chief found somewhat disappointing. Samus was just happy her precious vessel had remained in the small alcove where she had parked it; she knew the Pirates couldn't disable the ship's cloak, but the Covenant was using unfamiliar technology, and having a safe haven to come back to was no longer a guarantee.

_Nice ride, Samus._

The orange-clad hunter leapt up to the hatch on the ship's head. "Thank you, Cortana."

"Do I need to give you two some girl-time?"

Samus chuckled at the sly remark, though Cortana simply responded _That won't be necessary, though I am admittedly curious as to what the inside of her suit's computer looks like._

"I was thinking about something along those lines myself." Master Chief thought to himself, unable to keep a devilish smirk from his face.

Samus stood over the hatch and glanced down at her newfound comrade standing on the ground next to the ship. "It will take me a few minutes to upload the equipment onto my Power Suit. Wait here until I return."

"What, don't I get to come inside?"

"Chief, we may have a partnership, but this ship is my home; I am not quite that readily generous. Besides, I would rather not have any surprises waiting for me when I come out."

The Spartan shrugged "Fair enough" as Samus sunk into the ship's interior and the hatch closed with a click behind her.

"Cortana, any news over the Covenant battlenet?"

_Nothing conclusive. They're in full-fledged 'holy war' mode right now, deploying more troops and heavier weapons to deal with these new 'monsters.'_

"Leave it to the Covenant to crusade in style. What about the Space Pirates?"

_So far, they've set up a base for themselves and have kept busy fortifying it. Other than that, there have only been a few reports of Covenant squads encountering Pirate strike teams. The strike teams seem composed of standard troopers with only one or two commanders._

"That can't be all they brought with them."

_What do you wanna bet all their heavy hitters are sitting around in their base to make sure they don't get interrupted?_

"I don't think anyone has that much money on them."

_I'm not getting any chatter from the Pirates themselves; their comms must be pretty heavily- oh great._

"What?"

_We've got company. Several dozen Covenant approaching from the way we came. They must've been following us._

"Glad to hear they haven't forgotten about us, at least."

_You ready to lay out the welcome mat?_

Now that he really thought about it, was he? He hadn't been able to recover too much new weaponry since the battle that had claimed his squad mates, and he'd been doing a nice bit of fighting since then. He wasn't encouraged by the quick review of his current supplies; his SMG was almost out of ammo, the Needler he'd grabbed during his tussle with Samus was empty, the Plasma Pistol he'd picked up had a dead battery and he hadn't even noticed, and he was completely out of frag grenades. On the plus side, his Battle Rifle hadn't yet been used, a Plasma Rifle he'd claimed had a nearly full charge, and he had plenty of Plasma grenades.

He cocked the human rifle and glanced over at Samus' ship. "Don't mean to rush you or anything, but you might want to speed things up in there."

By now the Covenant were close enough that he could hear the squealing of the Grunts and Elites barking orders. "Well, time to go to work."

***

The alcove had some fairly rough terrain, with plenty of rocks for the Master Chief to hide behind. He used these to his advantage as the alien soldiers came into view, jumping from cover to cover between bursts of fire, keeping his adversaries from using their numbers to flank and surround him. He'd just felled his fourth Elite when he realized he was reaching for a Battle Rifle clip that wasn't there, and cursed as he beaned the nearest Elite with both the empty Rifle and the burnt-out Plasma Pistol. His kill count rose to seven Elites and a nice handful of Grunts and Jackals as he threw his last grenade, and realized that half of the Covenant squad still remained.

The Chief sprinted back to Samus' ship and ducked behind a thruster right before the air behind him lit up with plasma fire. He took another glance at his ally's still silent ship and shouted "Samus! A hand over here would be great right about now!"

He could hear the dirt-scraping footsteps of the Covenant and prepared to plant his fist into the first alien bugger that poked his head into view when he heard a familiar click and one of the Grunts squeak "Look! Other demon!"

Before his Elite sergeant could respond, the air was filled with the sound of crackling electricity and shrieking Covenant. The Master Chief stood up and turned to look at the ship's top; as expected, Samus had returned, and her arm cannon had widened to reveal purplish electricity sparking from its interior.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Chief…" she paused as she noticed the handful of Covenant remaining taking cover behind some crags a few meters away. Her arm cannon shifted appearance again, this time elongating and emitting red cinders. Her cannon charged up and released a searing burst of concentrated flame straight through the chest of an Elite that was urging his troops back into the fight. "…I needed to get some bigger guns."

The Spartan chuckled as he set about salvaging some of the Covenant's weaponry as Samus took aim at the surviving alien soldiers. "Yeah, I noticed."

***

After a few minutes of further fighting, all that remained was a solitary Jackal that had pressed itself up against a wall and huddled behind its shield. While the Chief tried to take aim at a spot that would let him hit through the shield, Samus whipped her free hand forward, reaching out with the Grapple Beam to snag the Jackal's shield, and with a quick jerking motion from its owner, yanked the shield clean out of the Jackal's hands. The skinny alien squawked in terror and fled, leaving the remains of nearly four dozen of its comrades scattered around the alcove.

As the Master Chief raised a Needler to fell the fleeing Jackal, Cortana stopped him. _Not so fast, Chief. You let that little guy live, and I'll bet you he tells every Covenant he can find not to mess with the two 'demons.' Might make things a little easier for us if we establish a reputation._

He paused, and then lowered the weapon and shrugged. "I guess I can restrain myself just this once." He was fairly content, as far as things were going; he had managed to completely restock himself during the final minutes of the battle and had felled almost three dozen Covenant total. Overall, not too bad of a performance, if he did say so himself.

Samus walked up to stand next to him, tapping a small control panel on the side of her arm cannon as she did. After a few moments, her ship's engines fired up and the personal craft rose into the air and sped off.

"What, not going to leave it there in case you need to come back and fix your makeup?" The Spartan asked, attempting to lighten the mood with some good-natured teasing.

Samus didn't seem to notice the taunt, however. "I'd prefer it if my ship was not destroyed in my absence, so I've set the autopilot to orbit the ring world from random positions."

_Why not just use it to locate Commander Keyes and our command ship?_

"And paint a nice, big target on ourselves while we fly around playing detective?" Master Chief answered. "Might not be the best idea in the world."

_Good point._

"At least if it's in orbit, it will be out of the line of fire. I hope."

There was a brief pause as Samus watched her ship disappear into the distance. Then, she turned to her companion and asked. "Alright, where to?"

"Cortana, still got In Amber Clad's last rendezvous coordinates?"

_Sure do._

"Then that's where we go."

"And if it isn't there?" Samus asked skeptically.

"Then this trip will start to get pretty interesting."


	3. Hell in a Handbasket

Chapter 3: Hell in a Handbasket

"Well, I'll say this." He might as well try and lighten the mood, the green-clad Spartan decided. "If I'd wanted a boring vacation, I wouldn't have come in the first place."

After an hour's worth of sneaking from cover to cover and many attempts at avoiding being seen by Covenant and Space Pirate scouting parties, enough to make the super soldier in a combat suit feel more like some sort of spy in a sneaking suit, Samus and Master Chief had finally arrived at In Amber Clad's rendezvous point. To say that they were disappointed to see that it was nowhere to be found would be putting it lightly. There was a totaled Warthog sitting upside-down next to a stream that the Chief had yanked some supplies from, and there were scorch marks dotting the ground here and there, but no In Amber Clad. Not even a crashed In Amber Clad, or dead bodies, or any sort of indication as to the terran cruiser's fate. Nothing. It was gone, and now the two armored warriors and their hitchhiking AI were alone, alone with two alien armies eager to tear them limb from limb. Maybe it had just been wishful thinking, considering their close proximity to the Pirates' newly built base, but it had been a goal that kept them going. Now, though, they were at a loss.

Master Chief's witty comment had gone relatively unnoticed by his two companions, and the humans stood in silence while Cortana decided that persistence was a virtue worth pursuing.

_In Amber Clad, come in. Respond, In Amber Clad. Commander Keyes, do you read me? Sergeant Johnson, are you there? Anybody? Hell, I'll even take Private Mendez at this point._

"You might as well save your breath, Cortana." Her ride answered. "If they haven't answered by now, they're not going to."

_Any ideas, then?_

As he didn't, the Chief turned to Samus, who had been quiet ever since they'd arrived on the scene. "Samus? Got any input?"

Her response was in actions rather than words, as she turned and began to walk away. Master Chief ran to catch up and match her stride. "Hey, is there something wrong?"

"Not really. Simply that, for once, I had hoped I would get the chance to do my work a little…differently."

"What do you…?" It suddenly occurred to him that Samus never DID have back-up during her missions. From what she'd told him about her profession, she took a job from an employer, took her own ship to the mission's destination, and then was left to her own devices, as impressive as those were. No reinforcements. No transportation. No officer feeding her information from afar. He practically didn't get out of bed without Cortana chatting in his ear and a trash-talking private shouting crude insults from safely behind him.

"Well hell, you've got me. Is that enough of a difference for you?"

He could hear her chuckle lightly from behind her visor. "I suppose it'll have to do."

They passed by the overturned Warthog. "Any chance you could get this thing up and running again?"

It was Master Chief's turn to laugh. "No way. I'm a commando, not a mechanic. Besides, I doubt it still has an engine to run." He paused for a moment to consider the question. "Why do you ask?"

"Because we need to be elsewhere as soon as possible."

_Like right about now._ Cortana continued. _I'm detecting a large contingent of Space Pirates leaving their base camp and headed in our direction. Oh yes, and I've been picking up various 'green light' commands over the Covenant battle net._

"So it looks like the fireworks are about to begin. If we can't be here, where do we go?"

Halo's landscape is known for being long and not wide, and their current location was no exception. Aside from the mountains in the direction of the Pirates' base and the hills on the opposite side, there was nothing but open ground and water. Which meant that if they were going to find cover and not get shot at, they needed to go…

"There" Samus answered, pointing at the entrance to a thin canyon separating the hills.

***

Cross-country sprinting in a suit of armor is never easy to do, but the two companions managed to make good time, reaching relative safety of the canyon before the Pirate army came into sight. The safety was only relative, of course, because by the time they arrived, they discovered a Covenant army approaching from the opposite direction. Now, huddled behind a small pillar that jutted out from the side of the canyon's wider center, the stranded soldiers were very much trapped and very much outnumbered, but at least they weren't getting shot at. Yet.

"I'll admit, I've had better ideas." Samus said, peeking out from the pillar's edge and the entrance the Covenant army was approaching.

"It beats swimming, at least. Neither of us are exactly wearing bathing suits."

"I'm starting to regret not bringing my Gravity Suit upgrade, actually."

The Spartan stared at her for a moment. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

The bounty hunter was surprised to find his blank stare uncomfortable. "Not…really…"

All jokes were placed aside as the ground began to shake, and moments later the two entrances to the canyon nearly exploded with angry alien soldiers. Pirate Commandos shouted growling orders to the Troopers around them while Elites drew Energy Swords and their ranks roared with battle cries. And then it was on.

***

Not wanting to get shot at, the two human soldiers only saw glimpses of the battle, but heard everything else. Piles of Pirate Troopers and Elites wrestled with each while they exchanged blade slashes and energy blasts with reckless fervor. A Pirate Commando launched a mortar shell into a cluster of Grunts and sent the tiny foot soldiers flying. Ghosts darted through the carnage while Aero Troopers and Banshees rained death down from above. As if that wasn't enough, of course, a pack of Elite Troopers and Hunters broke ranks and charged straight towards each other, sending thunderclaps echoing through the canyon as they collided. The earth around them shuddered as the two groups of titans clashed, forgoing their weaponry to engage each other in a sort of brutal sumo-wrestling match. Massive fists flew, and the gigantic combatants took to hurling their beaten rivals aside as they moved to their next opponent. A squad of Pirate Troopers scrambled to get out of the way of a fallen Hunter, while a defeated Elite Trooper went head first into a nearby Wraith, smashing its front half into the scrap and forcing the pilot to make a hasty exit. As more and more soldiers and vehicles barreled into the canyon to join the chaos, Samus and Master Chief couldn't do much aside from sitting and watching the death and destruction unfold before them.

"So" Chief whispered "anyone placing bets?"

_My money's on the guys who are still standing after this is over. If there are any._

He laughed. "Good answer."

The Spartan almost didn't notice his radio crackling to life with a familiar voice. _"Master Chief, come in. Repeat, Master Chief, please respond."_

"Hm?"

Samus, not having a radio of her own and oblivious to the message, looked over curiously. "What is it?"

"Hold on a minute, it looks like someone finally decided to check their answering machine."

_This is Cortana, I'm here with the Master Chief. In Amber Clad, what's your status?_

"_Good to hear from you, Cortana."_ Commander Keyes responded.

Cortana could hear the Chief mutter, "The feeling's mutual." before their superior officer continued. _"We've spent the last few hours playing hide-and-seek with some interceptors, but we've finally shaken them off and lifted radio silence. I hate to say this, but it looks like we've got company."_

"Let me guess; an armada of invaders who have landed on Halo?"

"_I take it you two have already met. What is your situation, Master Chief?"_

"My squad's been wiped out, and I'm trapped between two alien armies. I've had better days."

_We're stuck in a canyon north of our original rendezvous point, Commander. Any chance we could get a lift out of here?_

The two could hear Keyes giving orders to someone in the background._"Negative, Cortana, not with that firefight to wade through. However, if you can find some way to get to the surrounding hills, one of my Pelicans would be able to sneak in and pick you up."_

_Roger that, Commander. We'll be there waiting._ Before she had even finished, the Chief was already working on a way out. His eyes scanned their surroundings as his mind fit the pieces together. An unlucky camouflaged Elite had been killed near their hiding place, and his Active Camo generator lay nearly in arm's reach. Much farther away, a Spectre had crashed into the canyon wall, its pilot killed but the vehicle generally unharmed. A steep incline that led to the canyon's edge and the surrounding hills. It was only the bare bones of a plan, riding on a lot of 'if', but it would have to do. He turned to his companion, who was curiously waiting to be briefed on the new developments.

"Samus? I've got a plan."


	4. Rules of the OffRoad

Chapter 4: Rules of the Off-Road

"Samus? I've got a plan."

She winced reflexively as she watched a Ghost bearing an Elite pilot and a Pirate boarder collide with the canyon wall at full speed, sending its occupants flying in a cloud of debris. "Do tell."

"I've finally made contact with my commander, and she's sending us a dropship. Problem is, we need to find our own way out of the canyon. I think I may have an idea on how to correct that problem, though." Master Chief gestured to the Spectre far to their right. "That vehicle looks operable and *ahem* unoccupied. It also looks like our ticket out of here, one I don't think we're going to find again."

"Wonderful. How do you plan on getting us over there without being shot at?"

"With…" he darted out from the behind the pillar and snatched the Active Camo generator before returning. "…this."

With the click of a button, the Spartan faded from view, much to his companion's surprise.

"Chief?!"

"Right here, Samus." His voice said, coming from thin-air.

The hunter paused and then tapped the side of her visor, its edges gaining an orange glow. "Ah, I see, some sort of cloaking field."

"Something like that. I'm gonna run over, start up the vehicle, then swing by to pick you up. After that, we'll take that incline to your left at full speed and, if we're lucky, take a quick ride to the canyon's edge and out of here."

"And if we're unlucky?"

"We end up like our pals who were joyriding in that Ghost."

"Pleasant."

Running at full sprint would kick up enough dust and dirt to be noticed, so Master Chief took to simply walking along the canyon's wall. He thought a few times that he'd been spotted, but the Covenant and the Space Pirates were focused firmly on each other. The Spartan slowly pushed the dead Elite out of the driver's seat, and hopped in.

***

Several feet away, near the Covenant's entrance, a Grunt stopped and stared at a puzzling sight; a pilotless Spectre firing up its engines and adjusting its orientation.

"Lookit! Ghost car!"

His Elite superior was not amused, smacking the tiny alien upside the head. "That's a Spectre, runt, not a Ghost. Focus on the…"

His words were caught in his own throat, as a familiar Demon suddenly materialized in the Spectre's driver seat.

***

Master Chief cursed; the generator must not've been as charged as he had hoped, if it had only lasted him a few minutes. Already he could see a Covenant sergeant ordering some Ghosts to chase him down. The Spectre's engine made a squeal of protest, but a swift kick from its new owner quickly brought it in line.

"Cortana, see if you can send Samus a message telling her to hop in the back; I doubt we'll have enough time to be leisurely about this."

_I'll, uh…see if I can't find something that works._

A handful of Ghosts breaking ranks with the Covenant army and gliding in his direction prompted Master Chief to throw the Spectre into full throttle, and he sped away from the canyon wall. The air behind burned with plasma bolts, forcing him to weave back and forth to keep his ride from taking too much damage.

_Chief, duck!_

"Wh-?" Before he could utter the full word, the Chief spotted a glowing projectile rocket out from Samus' position. Taking a sharp left turn, he narrowly missed the Super Missile, which continued on and annihilated one of his pursuers in a blazing explosion. Edging the Spectre into a slide, the Chief felt the Spectre shake as it was burdened with a second occupant, Samus, boarding the rear turret, and then the two shot away from their hiding place. Wrestling with the Spectre's controls, the Spartan cursed again as he saw a squad of Aero Troopers entering from and blocking the pair's exit, and found himself wishing the Covenant had thought to mount turrets on the Spectre's front.

"Samus!"

"Yes?"

"Can you keep them off our tail for a few more minutes?"

Her initial response came in the form of a charged Plasma Beam burst that tore through another Ghost. "What will YOU be doing for the next few minutes?"

"Driving straight through the battlefield!"

"Excuse me??"

And the next thing the bounty hunter knew, they were neck-deep in Space Pirates and Covenant trying to tear each others' throats out. Muttering something along the lines of not wanting to conserve her Missile supply anyway, she let loose with a blast of Wavebuster, dancing purple electricity frying aliens they drove past on either side; he wasn't exactly making it easy for her to aim with anything else. A lucky Pirate Trooper managed to jump onto the Spectre's passenger seat, luck that abandoned him as the Chief placed a few Pistol shots into his head. Their Spectre bobbed and weaved back and forth across the battlefield, avoiding some combatants and failing to avoid a few others. By now they'd made their presence quite clear to the two armies, who attempted to divert as many of their forces into attacking their hated enemies without putting themselves at a disadvantage.

Putting in a final turn, Master Chief reoriented his Spectre towards his intended target; a now unobscured incline.

"Come on, baby, just alittle further…" He muttered to his so-far cooperative vehicle

"WHAT?" Samus shouted back over the din of the battle around them.

"I said hang on!"

Putting the Spectre onto the highest throttle it could manage, the Spartan launched his ride towards the incline. Pirates and Covenant whizzed past in a blur as the Spectre raced back across the field and onto the incline. Suffering little more than a scratched paint job, the faithful vehicle took to the incline and pointed its nose to the sky above them. The two final pursuing Ghosts didn't fare as well, leaving only a handful of Banshees and a group of cautious Aero Troopers to continue the chase. Master Chief's Spectre erupted into the air as he let loose a cheer of exhilaration. Their landing was less than graceful, but they were out, and they were into the hills. As their altitude increased with the height of the hills, Cortana activated the radio again.

_In Amber Clad, we're clear!_

"_Roger that, Cortana"_ Keyes responded. _"I've got a Pelican in the area waiting to pick you up. Are you easily visible?"_

_We're being chased by a squadron of Banshees._

"_They'll be able to find you, then. See you two when you get here!"_

No longer surrounded by angry aliens, Master Chief spared a backwards glance; they were indeed still being pursued, but Samus was steadily picking them out of the sky with her arm cannon.

"Hey, Samus!" He shouted back to her "You know you're standing next to a rapid-fire turret, right?"

"I do! I like my way better!" she answered, punctuating her point by blasting the last Banshee with another Super Missile. The Aero Troopers now approached, no longer afraid of getting blindsided by their Covenant adversaries.

The Spartan chuckled, and then abruptly stopped; his momentary glance away from where he was going had ended them up headed towards a dead-end.

"Crap."

Easing up on the throttle, Master Chief pulled out his Battle Rifle and prepared to join his new partner in fending off the Pirates when a hailstorm of chain gun bullets did their job for them. The surviving Aero Troopers turned and fled, a shout from a very familiar voice following them:

"That's right, you alien mothers! Run!"

A Pelican dropship hovered over to the two super soldiers and Sergeant Johnson was easily visible from his position of manning the rear turret, flanked by a squad of marines seated in the passenger chairs.

_Now where have we heard that before?_ Cortana said teasingly.

"It's 'cause I say it EVERY time I kick alien-bastard ass! And I do so enjoy it, thank you very much! Now are you gonna hop on or are ya gonna sit there chatterin all day?"

Johnson offered his hand to the Spartan, helping him onto the passenger deck.

"Ok, let's roll!"

"Wait a second, Johnson." The Chief said, stopping him. "I brought a friend."

Repeating Johnson's gesture, Master Chief held his hand out and pulled Samus up onboard. Johnson and the gathered marines froze for a moment, momentarily stunned by their hero's unusual companion. Only momentarily, however.

"Who in the hell is this?! Huh?? You met a Covenant bugger that likes to play dress-up and thought you'd bring 'em along??"

"The name's Samus, a human bounty hunter. And it's a-" The Spartan answered.

This did nothing to ease the sergeant's outbursts. "A BOUNTY HUNTER?! You mean some lame-brain scavenger decided it was cool to play war and dropped by to see if he could stir up some trouble??"

"It's a 'she', actually. And the two of us have spent the last several hours keeping each other alive in a warzone."

Johnson froze again as Samus decided it was time she spoke for herself. "A pleasure to meet you." She said coldly.

The marine stared for a few more moments before he cleared his throat and his mouth broadened into a sly smile. "Welllll, you'll have to pardon me, I tend to get a little excited sometimes." He took her hand in his. "Happy to have you aboard, little lady."

The bounty hunter glanced to her comrade. "Quite an…interesting friend you have here."

_You should see him when he gets mad._ The AI in Master Chief's scoffed playfully.

As the Pelican rose higher into the air and flew away, sounds from the battle still drifted up out of the canyon, though the canyon itself was now obscured by the foliage covering the hills. Before the two super soldiers could seat themselves, one sound echoed up through the hills like a clap of thunder that stopped them in their tracks; an ear-piercing shriek with a guttural, rumbling aftereffect. Samus cringed at the sound, hoping she would be able to get through this already complicated mission without having to hear that sound.

"Oh, great." She muttered.

Master Chief glanced around for the sound's source. "What was THAT?"

"Not what, WHO."

"Ok, WHO was that?"

"Ridley."

***

Back in the canyon, the battle hadn't been going well for the Space Pirates. With reinforcements from the Covenant fleet in the form of a bounty of Wraiths and Banshees, the Covenant had been able to push the Pirates back through long-range bombardment, and their success had been inspiring to the Covenant ranks. With that shriek that had echoed among the surrounding hills, that inspiration was gone, in an instant. It was replaced by a massive black shadow that blanketed the battlefield like some sort of ominous eclipse, the kind that is whispered about in myths and legends. Sunlight glinted off sleek metal scales, vicious teeth and claws and a long, barbed tail. Massive reptilian wings flanked the arrival and seemed to double his size. If Master Chief had taught the Covenant fear, this monstrous creature taught them sheer terror. With another shriek that sent shivers down the spines of even the most battle-hardened of the Elites, Meta Ridley dove at them.

A single strafe tore a gaping gash through the Covenant ranks, sending Grunts screaming for cover and forcing the Elites to grudgingly follow suit. As he turned for another pass, a beam of flaming energy erupted from Ridley's mouth, punching a hole straight through a Wraith. The second strafe was at a higher height, but no less deadly as explosives dropped from Meta Ridley's torso to bombard the Covenant beneath him. The Banshees, so far spared from the Pirate general's wrath, tried to surround the winged nightmare. Without pause, Ridley tackled one of the Banshees, reaching into the cockpit and tearing its pilot out before making a snack out of the unlucky Elite. A swipe of his tail lopped off the engine of the neighboring Banshee, sending it spiraling towards the ground. The Pirate army made no attempt to advance, much preferring to stay out of their leader's path of destruction. Desperate volleys from the surviving Wraiths filled the air around Ridley, but the Pirate general nimbly maneuvered around them, pouncing on the slow-moving vehicles and reducing each one to shredded scrap. Between casualties increasing by the second and the majority of the survivors running in terror, the Covenant general did the only thing he could do:

"Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"

As his forces fled, the Elite general took one last look at the demonic creature that had caused all of this destruction and turned certain victory into defeat. Ridley, pleased with the damage that he had caused, sat perched on a wrecked Wraith, found the Elite general's gaze, and stared back. And smiled. What the Elite general saw in those reptilian eyes unnerved him; no pity, no mercy, only sheer delight. Like a sadistic butcher, this creature found pleasure in this bestial slaughter. As the general turned to follow his troops in their escape, Ridley opened his massive jaws and loosed a final shriek of amused laughter.


	5. The Keyes to Victory

Chapter 5: The Keyes to Victory

Ask any UNSC commander where the last place they would want to be, and they would probably say "Fighting with the Covenant over one of their holy sites." It's an easy answer, really; on a good day, the Covenant is not an easy foe to contend with. But intruding on one of their sacred grounds, and they tend to shove all of their religious zeal right down your throat without hesitation. And seeing as the seven Halos counted among their holiest of artifacts, trespassing on one of them essentially constituted as asking to be choked to death. That's enough to ruin anyone's day. Commander Miranda Keyes had had worse. But at the moment, as she was reviewing their current situation; ordered to occupy the newly-discovered Halo on short notice and without any incoming reinforcements, her already thinly-spread fire teams hard-pressed by the Covenant and then wiped out by a new player to this game, her ship assaulted by interceptors and forced to hide in an uncomfortably small alcove…well, she'd had worse days, but at the moment she was having a hard time remembering any of them.

The only glimmer of hope she could count on right now was the same one she'd had to count on many times before; Spartan-117, the Master Chief. While she had lost contact with him several hours ago, she had just minutes past managed to find and extract the missing hero, and his Pelican was en route to her frigate, the In Amber Clad. What she should've been doing at the moment was begin to formulate her plans; with the Covenant currently occupied with their new enemies, this was the perfect opportunity to, if not take control of the Halo, ensure that none of the others could. That meant dispatching squads to find this Halo's Library and take possession of its Index; without the Index, the Halo became just a very pretty-looking space station rather than an ominous weapon of mass destruction. But she wasn't thinking about that, she was thinking about a transmission she'd received from Sergeant Johnson just moments ago; they'd found the Master Chief…and he wasn't alone. The Pelican was about to arrive with an extra passenger. This perplexed the UNSC Commander. All her squads had been accounted for, both alive and dead. None among the Covenant would readily ally themselves with the infamous Demon. And seeing as the new arrivals had made clear their intentions to kill everyone else around, this left the identity of this second passenger as a complete blank.

More time must have passed than Keyes had realized; from her command chair on the bridge of In Amber Clad, she could see the Chief's Pelican approaching. She would get the answers she wanted soon enough.

***

The dropship drifted into In Amber Clad's hangar, catching the attention of nearby crewmen and marines. The soldiers watched as the passengers disembarked, lead by Sergeant Johnson, and cheered as they saw the Master Chief exit the ship. These cheers died out almost immediately as the hangar's occupants took notice of the orange-clad stranger who followed right behind the Chief. Samus, in turn, took notice of their nervous stares, and rather than say anything, simply put them out of her mind and kept walking. Until, that is, she overheard the Sergeant speaking to one of the marines.

"Hey Sarge, who's the dude with the weird shoulders?"

Johnson took a glance in Samus' direction and gave a short laugh. "Not a dude at all, son, it's some bounty-hunter chick. Those party crashers tangling with the Covenant? She came here chasing them."

"What…by herself?"

"Least until she ran into the Master Chief. The two a them were caught in between two hostile armies before we came to give them a ride outta there."

"Woah…no way…Sarge, you're pullin my leg. Right?...Sarge?"

Samus wasn't the only one who had been eaves-dropping, and within moments a wave of whispers and mutterings passed through the crowd of marines who had come to see the Chief. Two things surprised her in the moments that followed; that the crowd's stares turned from nervous caution to admiration, and that Samus found this change…uncomfortable. A third surprise came on the heels of the first two as it occurred to Samus that she found nervous and fearful eyes negligible, yet admiration disturbed her, and she couldn't help but wonder why. What was understandable was that she, over her long career, had been given time to grow accustomed to fear, unease and hatred; the first two were common whenever she entered a Federation city, as half of the citizens thought her to be some urban legend and the other half knew both of her and the terrible amount of power she carried around, while hatred was easy enough to find…all she needed to do was look into the eyes of almost any Space Pirate to get all the hatred she needed.

But admiration, the feeling of being looked up to and respected, in extreme cases even worshipped, was something fairly new to her. But not, Samus noted as she looked back up at the Spartan in front of her, to him. From the way he took all this attention in stride, the Chief must be as accustomed to this as she was to fear and hatred. Perhaps there was something she could learn from him after all. And as she was about to discover, he wasn't the only one.

***

"Chief, Cortana," Miranda Keyes said as she leaned forward in her chair and rested her head on hands. "welcome back." While she had been addressing them, she hadn't been looking at them; instead, her eyes were locked into a hard stare at Samus, who stuck out like a sore thumb in her bright colors.

_Good to be back, ma'am._ Cortana answered.

The Commander was silent for the next few moments, as she took stock of Samus. The hunter returned the favor, and took note of the woman's below-average height and her fragile build; by all accounts, this was not a tough military woman. Yet, the way her crew watched her, the way they fell silent when she spoke, the way they were loathe to interrupt her and quick to follow her orders…Samus could tell that if nothing else, they respected her and her talent for leadership. Finally, the Commander said "So…you're the one who helped keep my favorite Spartan alive. May I ask who you are and what you're doing here?" She paused, and then laughed. "I'm sorry to be so blunt, but I'm afraid we have little time for formalities."

The bounty hunter shook her head. "No offense taken. My name is Samus, and I came in pursuit of the Space Pirate fleet that has landed on this…space platform."

Miranda leaned back, satisfied with her answer, but eager for more information; old questions gave way to new ones. "'Space Pirates'? A rather bland name, isn't it?"

"It's the only name we have for them, where I come from. And it is fitting, seeing as it is what they are chiefly known for. They are a notoriously greedy race, attacking ships and colonies, stealing their technology and their information, and then killing or enslaving their victims. The Galactic Federation who rules the area of space I came from has fought them bitterly for decades, but the Pirates are tenacious. Every new gadget or weapon they find only makes them more dangerous; it doesn't take them long to do enough research on the stolen technology that they become able to start replicating it, integrating into their own arsenal…or even developing it. I can only assume it's why the Space Pirates have come here; there's something on this space station that's piqued their interest, and they're willing to fight tooth and claw to claim it for their own."

An uneasy silence followed as Commander Keyes, the Chief and Johnson all traded nervous glances. "Or maybe" the Chief replied "it's the 'station' itself they're after."

Samus turned her head to look at him. "Oh?"

"This world, Halo," Keyes explained "is a weapon. One that can kill…well, everything."

Samus' eyes widened. "…Everything?"

Miranda nodded. "Everything. All life in the galaxy…at least, everything in this one. Until now, we hadn't realized that there were others beside our own."

"How do you know this?"

"This isn't the first Halo we…or rather, he" the Commander gestured towards the Master Chief, who simply nodded in response "has found. There are supposedly a total of seven Halo rings scattered throughout our galaxy; one's already been destroyed and one disabled, but we still haven't found the other four. But when one goes off, they all will, and when they do, all life in the galaxy will be wiped out."

Samus was taken aback, but made an effort not to show it. "And who would possibly build such doomsday devices?"

It was Cortana's turn to answer. _An ancient and remarkably advanced race known as the Forerunners. We have no idea as to why they built the rings, but what we do know is that they used them in an attempt to stop a race of parasites called the Flood. Too bad for us, the Forerunners are gone, the Flood's still out there somewhere, and we're stuck with their weapons of mass destruction to play Hot Potato with._

"Only the opposite" Keyes continued "because we're fighting for control. We want to disable the rings, while the Covenant wants to use them for religious purposes. They seem to think that activating the Halos will turn them into gods, or send them into heaven, or something bizarre like that."

Samus' apprehension had turned to resolve; she'd heard all she had needed. "Which means I absolutely cannot let the situation stand as it is. With one army in a position to inadvertently kill us and another with the desire to pull the trigger the moment they overwhelm the former, I'll need to move quickly to beat both of them to the punch."

"You mean 'we.'" The Master Chief replied, placing a hand on Samus' shoulder. "There's no way I'm sitting this out."

"And I may be short-handed here, but I'll be providing you with all the assistance I can." Commander Keyes added.

Samus paused for a moment; it was an odd feeling, having so many allies willing to back her up. Finally, she said "I'll need to get to my ship first; there are a few things I need before I get started."

Commander Keyes swung her chair around to face the helmsmen sitting in front of her. "That's fine, where do you have it parked? We can give you a lift."

"Actually, I think it would be better if I brought it to us."

Keyes' brow furrowed in confusion. "But I thought…?"

But Samus wasn't paying attention; she had turned to look down at her Arm Cannon, tapping a few small buttons on its side. After a few moments, she growled in frustration and looked back up. "I'm sorry, do you have a long-range communications array I could use? My ship's moved too far out of range for me to contact."

Commander Keyes indicated a console on the far side of the bridge, and then turned to Johnson and the Chief. "Let's not stay idle, people; we've got a job to do, let's see that it gets done."

Sergeant Johnson, who had been leaning silently against the wall, stood up with a grin on his face. "'Bout time we got off our asses. What's first on the list, ma'am?"

"Get in touch with the flight deck dispatcher; have him scramble every Longsword we have left. Minimum crew only. I want them running recon as soon as possible. We need to know what we're up against and where we stand in this little competition."

Johnson gave a quick "Aye aye, ma'am!" before he ducked out of the room. Meanwhile, Samus had finished scanning the communication's console. The front of her Arm Cannon opened up, revealing several pieces of hardware moving and shifting positions, until finally she had a connection port that looked identical in shape to a UNSC data chip. Slotting the new port into an open slot on the console, Samus repeated the command, and smiled in satisfaction as her command was confirmed and her gunship reported that it was on its way. She turned back to Commander Keyes and nodded. "Thank you. Do you have some place where I can store it?"

Keyes tapped a button on one of the armrests of her chair and said "Johnson, make sure to tell the dispatcher to clear some space in hangar 7; he's going to have a guest in his stable."

***

"What do you mean I'm going to have an extra ship? Our reinforcements haven't shown up yet, have they?"

Sergeant Johnson tapped some ash off his cigar and stuck in back in his mouth. "Nah, Commander figures they're still a day out. But that bounty hunter that hopped on board, the one that had teamed up with the Chief? She's bringin her ship over and leavin it in our hands while she's out having fun."

The dispatcher laughed. "So that rumor that's been going around isn't a rumor at all? HAH! Ain't nobody tough enough to hang around with a Spartan alone. I'll believe it when I see it, Johnson."

Johnson glanced over at the express lift as it was coming down the side of the hangar. "Well you'd best keep your eyes peeled, then."

Before the dispatcher could ask what he meant, Samus' gunship drifted in through the open hangar bay doors. Johnson noticed it mill around a bit, as if it wasn't sure what to do next. He hesitated for a moment, then shouted up "Hey! Tin can! Over there!" as he pointed over to the open space that the dispatcher's deck hands had just cleared. The ship paused, then glided over to the indicated space and set itself down.

The Sergeant glanced over at the dispatcher, whose mouth was hanging open, and chuckled as he noticed the lift reach its destination. "You think that's somthin, just wait."

As soon as the lift's gate opened, Samus came running out and headed for her ship, with the Master Chief walking calmly after her. While she was still several feet away from her vessel she took a flying leap, somersaulting through the air and drawing the attention of the marines still working in the hangar, coming to a perfect landing atop her ship's entrance port.

As Samus sunk into her ship, the Chief approached Johnson and the stunned dispatcher, both pairs of eyes on the bounty hunter's ship. Johnson laughed. "She's sure something, ain't she?"

"The girl or the hardware?"

"Can't it be both?"

_Johnson, if you can take your mind off our guest for a minute,_ Cortana interrupted, sounding slightly more irritable than she had intended _could you round up a squad of volunteers and get a Pelican loaded up? The works? The Commander wants to send a squad with us when we move out, and she's putting you in charge of them._

"Can do. Why volunteers, though?"

_This is going to be a pretty high-risk mission; everyone involved is going to need to know what they're getting themselves into. I was just looking over the casualty reports, and we've taken some pretty heavy losses as it is, we can't go throwing more marines into a mission they won't be able to handle._

Johnson scoffed. "Whatever you say. Back in my day, we didn't worry so much about who we were sending on a rough mission, we just sent 'em! Builds character!"

***

Samus withdrew her Arm Cannon from the access port and stepped back. Energy Tanks had been refilled, the Missile Launcher had been fully recharged, and the Seeker Launcher, Power Bombs and Boost Ball had all been uploaded. She would've liked a Light Suit or Annihilator Beam to go with them, but she returned that technology to the Luminoth she had borrowed them from, and she would have to make do with what she had. She was about to step back onto the energy lift that would take her out of her ship, but she hesitated, staring out the main viewport at the marines mulling around outside. They stared curiously at her gunship from the other side of the hangar and talked among themselves, though from this distance she couldn't hear what they were saying.

Now, she knew she could trust the Master Chief not to betray her, this much was certain. And this Commander Keyes seemed like an honorable person. But these other humans, these strangers who seemed so much like the citizens of the Galactic Federation yet so different in behavior and character…she wasn't sure she could leave her ship sitting here where they could tamper with it. They certainly didn't seem like the malicious type, but no one could fault them if they were curious about what kind of alien technology her ship contained.

Leaving her gunship on a planet's surface during one of her missions was, admittedly, somewhat different; at least there its cloaking field kept it safe from hostile attention. But these marines knew her ship was here, even if she did active the cloak to keep them from seeing it. Samus disliked being so suspicious of her allies, but had long-since learned that you could never be too cautious. She tapped the controls on a nearby console, putting her ship into full lockdown, one that could only be lifted on her command, before stepping onto her lift.

As she emerged, she noticed the Chief sitting leisurely in a nearby Warthog. "Everything alright? You were in there for awhile." He called up to her.

"Was I?" Samus replied, inwardly conscious of how much time she'd spent debating this issue. She wasn't proud of the fact that, as urgent as this situation was, she couldn't simply turn a blind eye to what was essentially her home and focus on more important things. Much to her relief, the Chief simply shrugged it off and hopped down from the jeep.

"We've got some intel coming in from the scouts the Commander sent out. Looks like the Pirates have set up shop around Halo's Control Room. They're setting up anti-air guns in the mountains around the Control Room, so that's a no-go. But they've also spotted various groups entering the surrounding tunnels that fill Halo's underground. So far, they and the Covenant have been keeping to themselves, but I doubt that will last for long. So what's your call, Samus?"

Samus paused after she jumped down from her ship. "You're asking me?"

"Who here knows more about Space Pirates?"

"Ah, good point." She thought about it for a moment. "I need to gain access to the Pirate's computer database, find out how much they know about Halo. The more covert our methods, the better. If the Pirates are indeed heading into the tunnels, they might be setting up outposts, guarding their flanks. If you can get me into one of those outposts, I can hack their network, and that will help us figure out where to go from there."

"Sounds like a plan." The Chief turned to face the other end of the hangar and shouted. "Johnson! Everything ready?"

A heavily armed and armored Pelican hovered into view and glided over to them, with Johnson sitting on the edge of the passenger's compartment. "Your chariot awaits, milady! Where to?" the Sergeant called down jokingly. Samus smirked beneath her visor; as uncomfortable as this whole situation may be, she could certainly get used to this…


	6. Running Out Of Elbow Room

Chapter 6: Running Out Of Elbow Room

It was a few hours before group was on their way, as the Pelican they were using needed to be refit for their mission. Additional armor plating had been added, the storage compartments had been loaded up with weaponry, and the engineers had managed to squeeze two vehicles onto the dropship by stuffing a Warthog into the seating area while a Scorpion tank occupied the normal vehicle rack. All these additions had made Samus uneasy, especially when the Pelican shuddered under the weight its additional cargo during takeoff, but their necessity was made clear when they encountered a Space Pirate patrol. Though he'd had to sit on the Warthog's hood, Johnson had been able to fend off the interceptors with the Pelican's gun turret while the extra armor plating had protected the ship's vital systems from the weapons fire. After it was all clear, Samus decided to use their remaining idle time to press Cortana about the Halos and their creators.

_You'll be glad to know that there's a more…accessible target, aside from the control room, that we can hit to keep the Halo from being fired. There's a key that is needed called the Index, stored in a Library somewhere on Halo. If we can get to the Index before the Pirates, they'll have to come to us in order to fire it._

"Though I'll bet they weren't going to let that sit for long anyway." The Master Chief responded.

_All the same, it'll give us the advantage. We've been on the defensive this whole time, the sooner we start taking the initiative, the better._

In order to avoid detection, their pilot landed the Pelican a mile away from the nearest entrance to the underground tunnels, and the strike team continued on foot. The rest of their trip was uneventful, and the two super soldiers with their marine escorts descended into the darkness underground.

The group moved through the tunnels cautiously, hoping to avoid detection. The network of artificial caves was just as vast as the Chief and Cortana had seen in the other Halos, and if Samus was having difficulty adjusting to the new environment, she wasn't giving them any indication. It was when they finally neared the coordinates of the Space Pirate's territory that a new sight caught their attention; a dozen Covenant Brutes working their way through the tunnels. The massive apes didn't so much walk through the tunnels as they did stampede, muscling their way through the tight passages. The human soldiers hung back, staying out of sight until the Brutes had passed.

"Where do you think they're going?"

_They're headed in the same direction we are._

Samus emerged from the side passage they had been using and started to follow the Covenant warriors. "We should try and keep up with them; with any luck, they'll stumble over whatever security measures the Space Pirates have prepared for us."

As if on cue, the sounds of weapons fire filled the tunnels ahead of them. The Brutes had been spotted by a group of Sentry Drones, who peppered the apes with rapid plasma fire. The light weaponry of the Drones couldn't penetrate the Brutes' thick hides however, and their explosive Brute Shots quickly brought the flying robots crashing to the ground. Despite their failure, the Drones had done their job; a high-pitched alarm echoed through the tunnels, summoning a swarm of Pirate Troopers from the outpost in the passage beyond.

Johnson chuckled as he watched the two alien forces battle each other viciously. "It's nice to not have to be the ones to deal with those buggers for once."

"Speaking of which, sir, when do we join the party?" said one of the marines, poking his head out from the back of the group.

_We won't, if we can manage it. We're after the Pirates' data files, and the idea is to get in and out as quickly as possible. That means we avoid confrontation as much as possible._

Samus paused to chuckle at the marine's whine of disappointment before addressing her companion. "Cortana, do your scans show any detours we can use to get around the fight?"

_If we take a left here, there should be a small alcove we can use to edge our way along the main tunnel. But we'll have to be creative once we get to the other side of the room; I see a doorway we could use, but it's locked. The Pirates must've done a sweep of the area and plugged up any shortcuts to stop us from doing exactly what we're doing._

"Aw hell, a locked door." Master Chief responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "We've only got two highly-sophisticated hacking systems, there's no way we'll be able to figure that one out."

"Good point. We'll figure out how to get in once we get there."

The group of soldiers worked their way cautiously across the alcove, insuring they wouldn't be seen as much as possible, while the Brutes and Pirates tore the main tunnel to shreds. Despite their massive strength, the Pirates outnumbered the Brute squad by a three-to-one margin, and the Troopers were pressing that advantage as much as possible. After a few minutes, the group reached the door and started looking for a way through. Their luck seemed to have run out, however; there weren't any computer terminals or anything they could use to hack into the door's systems, and their heavy weaponry did little more than blacken the door's paneling.

Johnson back away from the door and looked it over. "Well Chief, you were right."

_Of all the times to be right…_

But Samus wasn't listening to them; instead, she was examining a small hole in the corner of the wall. It was apparently part of the tunnels' design, as she'd similar holes scattered throughout the area, and they always led to the other side of the wall. The only question was, was it large enough for her?

Feeling ambitious, she turned to Master Chief and the other soldiers. "Wait here."

The Spartan glanced at her quizzically. "And where are you going?"

"Through the wall."

"And how do you-" Before he could finish, Samus tucked her head forward as her armor glowed briefly, and a split second later, the orange-clad bounty hunter had been replaced with an orange metal ball. The Chief and the other soldiers stared at the ball, astonished. "Uh…Samus? You… just turned into a ball. Is everything alright?"

Her voice seemed to respond not from the ball itself, but its general direction. "Yes, I am. It's a tad difficult to explain, but suffice it to say this is another of my Power Suit's abilities. As you might notice, it's handy for getting through tight spaces. I'm going to go through this hole the Forerunners conveniently placed in this otherwise very secure wall and see if I can't unlock the door from the other side."

Master Chief wasn't entirely sure he understood why anyone would design an armored suit to be able to roll its wearer into a ball the size of a bowling ball, but he nodded anyway and watched as the ball-Samus rolled itself along the floor and through the hole and out of sight. He continued to stare at the spot where she had left.

_Jealous, Chief?_ Cortana asked playfully.

"Who, me?" He said innocently. "Nah, I promised myself I wouldn't be jealous until she tells us that she's got a coffee maker somewhere on that thing. Then I'd be a little pissed that our engineers never thought of that one."

It wasn't long before they could hear machinery at work behind the locked door, and it clicked open to show a once-more human Samus standing before them. "Come on" she said, gesturing them inside "But be quiet, we still have company."

As the soldiers followed her slowly inside, they could see what she meant; despite the fierce battle raging outside their doorstep, there were a handful of Troopers still inside the outpost room. A few of them worked on consoles or operated scanning equipment, while others were pulling panels off of the walls and carefully extracting pieces of Halo's inner workings.

It was the Sergeant who spoke first; "Well I'll be damned. They're tryin to take the Halo apart."

_Looks more like they're trying to figure out how it works._

"These Troopers are part of the Pirates' Science Team." Samus said to explain what they were seeing. "An entire section of their fleet devoted to acquiring, studying and developing new technologies. It makes sense that they'd hide their vulnerable scientists in these tunnels while the main force drew attention to themselves on the surface.

"I imagine they're not going to let us just waltz in and access their database." The Chief asked.

"Of course not."

He drew his Battle Rifle and began to take aim. "That's what I like to hear."

It was over in a matter of seconds; with the element of surprise on their side, the last Science Trooper dropped before he even knew what was going on.

"Let's move, marines!" Johnson shouted to his squad. "Secure the area, go go go!"

As the marines rushed to occupy any tunnel leading into the room, Samus walked over to the nearest terminal and began to examine it. A tap to the side of her helmet engaged the suit's scan function, and she quickly gained access to the Pirates' data network. Master Chief moved up beside her, trying to see what it was in these files that she hoped to find. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Their Log Books."

_The Space Pirates bother to make log entries?_

"They may not seem like it, what with their wild and barbaric method of combat, but the Space Pirates are incredibly well-organized. Their officers keep a record of their activities and send them to their headquarters for review. In fact, from what I've seen, they seem to need permission from headquarters, or at least a high-ranking commander, in order to obtain any supplies or personnel they need. Just think of them as a murderous, conquering bureaucracy; they have a constant need to make sure their resources are being used as efficiently as possible."

The Chief couldn't suppress a laugh. "It's a wonder they get anything done."

"Yes, it certainly…" Her voice drifted off abruptly. "…Here we go."

"Did you find what you wanted?" Master Chief asked, glancing over the alien text. Their conversation had caught Johnson's attention, and he moved around to Samus' other side to see what they were talking about.

"I believe so…yes, here's a mention of the two of us…"

"What do they say?"

"Essentially 'kill on sight.'"

"At least they're consistent."

"They seem to have figured out Halo's purpose on their own." Samus took a moment to read it on her own. "Apparently, they've located a 'large and heavily fortified structure' on Halo's far side that's being defended by an army of Forerunner robots. Sound familiar?"

It did, as the Chief and Cortana answered at the same time. _"The Library."_

_If the Pirates have found the Library, they might've found out about the Index. Is there any mention of it in there?_

"No, but they're very intent to get inside; they've sent Ridley and some of his troops to break into the structure. The robots defending the Library might be able to slow them down, but it's only a matter of time before they find it."

_We can't let them get their hands on the Index. We HAVE to get to it before they do. Gather the squad together Johnson, we're getting out of here._

The Sergeant had turned away from the terminal. "There's just ONE problem with that plan."

"Sarge, incoming!" The marines guarding each entrance started to shout. The remaining Brutes had received reinforcements and had arrived at the doorway to the Science outpost, and another wave of Space Pirates were approaching from the other side.

"We've got company."

Master Chief reloaded his rifle and Samus began charging her arm cannon.

"You kids ready to show me what you got?"

_Well_ Cortana answered _We're about to find out._


	7. Between A Brute And A Hard Place

Chapter 7: Between A Brute And A Hard Place

There was a brief moment where it seemed like time had stopped. The Pirate Troopers, summoned to repel a Covenant attack on one of Science Team's outposts, and the squad of Covenant Brutes, tasked with clearing the tunnels of the Pirates, both froze upon encountering not their hated enemies, but a handful of human soldiers. They weren't alone, however. The Brute commander spotted a figure in green and his blood began to boil. Orange met the Pirate captain's eyes and his fangs ground into a sneer.

"The Demon…"

"The Hunter…"

"KILL THEM!"

And all at once, everyone went into motion and the small room descended into chaos. The marines still near the rear entrance scrambled away from Pirate Trooper wrist blades. Despite being only a few feet away from the front entrance, Johnson whipped out his sniper rifle and sent a bullet through the brain of the first Brute through the door. Surprising both of them, Master Chief turned to face the incoming Pirates while Samus took aim against the approaching Brutes.

The next Brutes through the door managed to shrug off more than two charged shots each before hitting the floor, and the sixth in line roared as he vaulted over his companions' corpses. The Brute Shot at his side forgotten, the beast flailed his massive fists towards the foreign bounty hunter. The Chief had claimed a solid dozen victims with his Battle Rifle when he saw Samus flying past him towards the opposite wall with a charging Brute close behind her. She hit the wall hard, the impact dulling her vision even through the Power Suit's padding and shielding. Samus looked up to see the Brute bearing down on her, and quickly switched to her Plasma Beam and clenched the fist of her free hand. She socked the Brute in the face hard enough to make it flinch, providing her enough time to give her arm cannon a short charge, blast the alien in the chest with the vicious Plasma Beam and send it sailing back in the opposite direction.

"*sniff* Ugh, hate the smell of burnin' fur…" Chief could hear Johnson mutter as he pulled his sniper rifle away from a Pirate that was trying to wrestle it from his grip and butt it in the face with the weapon's stock. Cortana alerted him to a Brute coming up from behind, prompting the Spartan to snatch a plasma grenade from a fallen Brute, throw the explosive into the attacking Brute's face, then kick it away as its upper half became a flash-fried mess.

Samus, suddenly within arm's reach of the Pirate entrance, took a few steps back as she locked onto the Pirates advancing on her with her Seeker Missiles, then released the barrage and blasting her attackers off their feet. She grabbed a wounded marine and carried him to the center of the room, where her allies were grouped together. The remaining Pirates and Brutes had finished filing into the room and had spread out along either wall, torn between advancing on the humans and the knowledge that if they did so, it would leave them vulnerable to their rivals.

As she got close, the Master Chief leaned close to Samus and said "You alright? That was a pretty hard hit you took."

"I'm fine, I've had worse."

_And as much as I'm enjoying this little tribute to your Spartan namesakes, we've got a job to do. You know, the Library? The Index? Ringing any bells?_

Chief scoffed. "You're always ruining my fun."

"As much as I agree," Samus responded "how exactly do you propose we get out of here?"

_We go with what we know works; you and Chief hit those Brutes hard. The marines can make a break for it, and then-_

"And then both of these guys tear us to shreds? Good plan, Cortana."

…_If you'd let me FINISH, Chief, we could then follow them out as soon as we get the Brutes out of the way._

While listening and feeling little confidence in the current plan, Samus glanced over to the side door they had used to enter earlier. There was only one Brute standing near it, as opposed to the three or four blocking the main entrance.

"I have another idea. Get everyone over to that door over there and I'll cover us. I need to pay those monkeys back for that hit earlier."

Understanding what she was getting at, Chief tipped Johnson off first and then sped towards the Brute obstructing their path. The massive warrior fired his Brute Shot at the Spartan, but he nimbly stepped out of the way and peppered the Brute with an SMG while charging a Plasma Pistol he'd snagged. The hail of bullets enraged the Brute, who dropped his weapon and charged straight for the approaching soldier. Exactly as intended, the fully charged Pistol erupted in the Brute's face, and it sailed limply past the Master Chief. As he reached the door, he turned around. The remaining marines were hot on his tail, herded forward by Sergeant Johnson, with Samus still in the middle of the room, a stream of billowing flames pouring from her arm cannon. She swung her weapon in every direction, spraying both Pirates and Covenant in the orange flames. Her Plasma Beam's Flamethrower traded intensity for this continuous attack, and the flames were causing little damage to their targets. But the important thing is that they were holding the aliens at bay, giving the marines enough time to escape. Chief knew she couldn't keep this up forever though, and as soon as she tired, she would be smothered by Pirates and Brutes both incredibly annoyed by her irritating attack and unable to defend herself. He wasn't the only one who noticed.

_Chief…!_

"I know. Johnson!"

"What's up, kid?"

"I could use a hand." He said, using both hands to pull all the frag grenades he had left. Johnson took his cue and did the same. As the last marines passed through the door and bolted down the tunnel, the Chief shouted. "Samus!" The bounty hunter away from the center of the door just as both Pirates and Covenant dove towards that spot, and the two soldiers hurled their collective half-dozen grenades. The built-up explosion filled the room and propelled Samus towards the door. She landed with a roll, and gave the two a quick "Thanks" before all three of them took off at full speed through the tunnel and back towards the open air.


	8. Did Someone say ‘Road Trip’?

Chapter 8: Did Someone say 'Road Trip'?

As they ran through the tunnels, the sounds of battle echoing behind them, Sergeant Johnson shouted into comm system. "Does it sound like ah give a damn about enemy patrols, pilot? Get that bird down here pronto, or ah will personally hand you your ass!"

Not wanting to invite the wrath of his out-spoken superior officer, the Pelican was waiting for them when they emerged from the tunnels, though he was far from alone; Banshees and a Covenant Phantom were circling the sky above them.

_Pilot, disengage your Scorpion. The Chief and Samus are going to continue on the ground while you take our wounded back to In Amber Clad. Load up a fresh squad, then come back, and I'll guide you to our location._

"Ah'm comin too" Johnson continued "You're not gettin rid a me that easily."

It wasn't until the tank had actually been detached that Samus noticed the Scorpion only had one seat. "Where are the extra two people supposed to sit?"

"There's plenty a room on the tread plating, isn't there?" the Sergeant answered as he hopped into the driver's seat.

Master Chief jumped up beside him. "Hold it Johnson, I always drive."

"If you pass it up this ONE time, ah think ah can make it worth your while…" Johnson answered, pulling a rocket launcher out of the storage compartment and holding it out to his comrade. The Chief stared at it briefly before taking the weapon. "Ok, but just this once."

The sergeant settled into the tank's cockpit. "Now we're talkin!"

The bounty hunter grudgingly leapt up onto one of the treads and the tank lumbered off, drawing the Covenant aircraft away from the Pelican. The two super soldiers had to crouch to avoid getting bashed in the back of the head by the Scorpion's swiveling gun turret.

It wasn't long before the Covenant hovering above them became ambitious and dived down to attack the lone tank. The Scorpion's cannon swung around and blasted the nearest Banshee, sending its shattered pieces towards the dirt. Samus began charging up her Power Beam, readying a Super Missile for the next target, and was about to fire when the Banshee was destroyed by one of the Chief's rockets. She chose another target, but had barely taken aim before another cannon blast from the tank did the flyer in. Three more Banshees followed suit, and Samus was starting to get bored just sitting there watching her male companions take down each enemy before she could get a shot of her own.

After digging through the Covenant battlenet, Cortana managed to find the general coordinates of the Library, and was directing the trio down a narrow canyon. This worked to their advantage, surprisingly; Covenant pursuers were forced to approach from either directly in front of them or directly behind, and between three pairs of eyes and two radar systems, the odds of getting close enough without being noticed was depressingly slim. One Ghost managed to get lucky and was speeding towards the Scorpion's rear. Samus noticed her companions were focused on enemies in front of them, and thought her luck was improving too as she clicked the Missile button inside her arm cannon. The Super Missile streaked out of the cannon, and was feet away from the ill-fated Ghost when a rocket obliterated the hovercraft before the Missile could nail its target.

The bounty hunter fumed silently as she heard the Chief call out from the other side of the tank "Oh, were you taking that one? Sorry."

By now, the Covenant following them had learned to give the lone Scorpion a wide berth, and as they neared the canyon's exit, the Phantoms pulled away entirely.

_Wonder why they're giving up so easily?_

"That might be why."

Exiting the canyon and arriving at an overgrown river, the trio was presented with a humbling sight; a massive Scarab walker towering over them.

_Johnson, get us the hell out of here!_

"Ah can't Cortana, these Scorpions don't have any speeds higher than Grandma!"

_Then I think it's time to abandon tank!_

Johnson grudgingly agreed and the three of them dove away from the Scorpion and bolted for cover as the Scarab began to charge up its main gun. They watched, hidden under scattered foliage, as the faithful tank was ripped to shreds by the walker's powerful beam.

_I just gave our Pelican a call, and it's only a few minutes away. If we can hold out here, it'll show up with a new ride for us._

"Preferably something faster." Samus said, silently adding that she would also prefer something without cannon turrets or a stash of rocket launchers.

_If we're lucky, the Scarab pilot will think we died in the explosion and move on._

"I doubt he's that stupid." The Chief said. Lo and behold, however, the Scarab didn't even stop to check and continued on its way down the river. As the three soldiers climbed out from their cover, they watched the Scarab lumber out of sight.

_Did anyone else notice it's headed in the direction of the Pirate base?_

"If it is" the Chief answered "I'd like to see how those Pirates will handle it."

As predicted by Cortana, their Pelican flew into sight within a few minutes. The pilot, a short-haired blonde man wearing a pair of goggles, leaned out of his cockpit's window and surveyed the tank's wreckage. "Geeze Sarge, those Scorpions don't grow on trees you know!"

"Shut it, Baird! Just drop your Warthog and your extra weapons and getchyer ass back to base!"

The pilot muttered sarcastically as he lowered the Pelican to the ground and another soldier, a heavily muscled black man, pushed the now loosened Warthog out of the cargo hold and lifted a load of weaponry in his massive arms.

"Here ya go, Sarge! Best hardware on the Clad! I'm sorry I'm not goin with you, sir, I've been achin to bust some heads!"

Johnson pulled a shotgun out of the pile and strapped it to his back. "What a you talkin about, boy? And why isn't there another squad with you?"

"Sorry sir, the Commander's callin everybody back to base. Somethin big's about to go down, for sure. She wants us all out of the line of fire until it blows over."

Johnson sighed and muttered "That girl…" as he handed the Chief a fresh rifle. "Alright Cole, you two better get back to In Amber Clad before Commander Keyes starts gettin too edgy and decides to clear out all together."

The Pelican flew off, and the Chief jumped into the Warthog's driver seat. "Sorry Johnson, that was your chance."

The sergeant muttered angrily as Samus headed for the rear turret. "Woah, hold on a minute. Johnson's getting the turret, Samus, you're taking shotgun."

"Why?"

"Because he actually uses it." He replied with an unseen smirk. "Come on, let's go."

The Sergeant laughed as he hopped in the back while Samus took her seat in the front. The Chief spun the tires for a minute before the three sped off in the Warthog.

***

While Samus wouldn't admit it, the Chief's insistence was turning out to be for the better. While the Scarab pilot had not felt the need to confirm his kill, his commanders did, and had sent a swarm of Drones to the wreckage to investigate, arriving just in time to spot their Warthog leaving the area. The bug-like Covenant managed to catch up to them as they were driving through a jungle, and while the Master Chief kept his focus on keeping them from crashing into anything, his two passengers concentrated on fending off their pursuers. Though Johnson's chaingun turret cut large swaths through the swarm, Samus wasn't able to keep her eyes on a single target in the veritable cloud of attackers to nail more than a few Drones with her Power Beam. Her frustration growing, she finally threw conservation to the winds and switched over to her Missiles. This proved to be a large improvement; while the agile Drones could avoid the small Power Beam shots, they weren't fast enough to escape the Missile targeting system, and each volley of Seeker Missile sent handfuls of Drones to the ground.

The Chief was having an equally frustrating time finding a good path through the foliage and the swarming insects all around them, but Cortana managed to keep him on the right track. After an hour of enduring on and off Drone attacks, the trio had reached a dead end. The forest had ended abruptly with a sheer cliff wall, and its summit towered dozens of feet above them.

"Well what now?" Johnson asked.

_The Library is on the other side of this mountain._

"Why didn't you tell us to just stick with the Pelican, then?"

_Relax, Sergeant, there's a hidden entrance to the tunnels beneath the mountain somewhere around here. We won't go over the mountain; we'll go through it._

The Chief sighed. "More tunnels. I should've enjoyed the fresh air while it lasted."

_Technically, Chief, none of this is fresh air; none of the plants produce oxygen, so Halo's entire atmosphere is synthetic._

He waved a hand. "Details."

With Cortana's further guidance, they located the entrance and returned to the underground. Unlike the tunnels the Pirates inhabited, which were more for maintenance, it was obvious that the section they had just entered had a more significant purpose; there were large pieces of equipment stuck out of the walls, dotted by active consoles and the tunnels were filled with the sounds of laboring machinery. Samus didn't let this opportunity for study go to waste; as they walked, she ran her suit's scanner at full pace recording and examining everything they saw.

"Say Cortana" Sergeant Johnson said "You know a lot about Halo, right? What's all this junk for?"

The Chief rounded a corner and stopped. "I think I know."

The next hallway was filled with rows of Sentinels, flying robots built by the Forerunners to guard the Halos, meandering about. Though all of them were fully powered, none of them turned their deadly weaponry on the three soldiers as they walked past, barely even registering their presence in fact. At the end of that hallway was another room, and the trio could hear a high voice emanating from the room as they entered. "…must ensure that Sentinel production continues as scheduled. The intruders have suffered losses, but it has not been sufficient to extricate them from our systems. We cannot allow them a respite lest they further fortify their positions."

A Monitor, a floating orb with a single blue glowing light for an eye, hovered about large Enforcer Sentinels, talking to them.

"Aw, great" Johnson said, groaning "More talking light bulbs."

This caught the Monitor's attention, who stopped and turned to face the three. "Hmm? Oh my...how fortuitous! Two Reclaimers… and a Raptor! Both here during my time of need!" it said enthusiastically. It then turned to Samus and continued. "Raptor, I am pleased to see your armor's design has been refined in the thousands of years since I first observed it. Progress is a wonderful thing, is it not?"

There was a stunned silence as the Chief and Johnson both looked at Samus, finally broken when Johnson said with mild confusion. "…Did he just call you a dinosaur??"


	9. Straight and to the Point

Chapter 9: Straight and to the Point

"…Did he just call you a dinosaur??"

_Raptor is a name used for predatory birds, Sergeant. Though why a Monitor would associate birds with Samus…_

"I know why." The bounty hunter herself answered. "My Power Suit is a product of the Chozo race, used by their warriors, and was given to me by the Chozo who trained me. They…are rather bird-like."

"Chozo…" The Monitor seemed thoughtful for a moment, though it was difficult to tell with a floating cybernetic eyeball. "Yes, that name registers with my memory banks."

"You know of the Chozo?" Samus said, sounding more surprised than she had intended.

"My my, yes, I am somewhat familiar with your species, Raptor. Records show that a travelling band of Raptors made contact with my creators. A meeting took place, and an exchange of technologies was made as a show of goodwill. Reports from that event indicate that both parties left pleased with the encounter." It answered cheerfully.

"This meeting was here? On this Halo?"

"Yes indeed. I am rather proud that an initial contact of this nature took place on my Installation."

Samus didn't need to hear any more; she knew what would come next. Chozo technology located somewhere nearby, something that it was deemed impressive enough to act as a gift for these vaunted Forerunners. She was always eager to take advantage of any technology that would give her an edge over the Space Pirates.

"Samus" the Master Chief interrupted, as if he knew what she was thinking "are you sure you want to get sidetracked right now? We're kinda on a tight schedule here."

The Monitor turned to him next. "Hmm? Ah, I see. Your use of the Raptor's birth name indicates that yours is a personal relationship."

While it was an innocent comment, it seemed to strike a nerve with the two super-soldiers, who looked at the Monitor, then at each, with surprise.

"W-Woah now" the Chief stammered "we're not…I mean…ha ha…she's not my…"

The Monitor responded almost sympathetically. "Oh my, am I incorrect? I must apologize; I do not have complete data on the social rules of organics. I hope I did not offend you in any way."

And while Samus assured him that he had not, Johnson looked between the two of them and chuckled silently to himself.

_I think_ Cortana said, a little too eager to get back on track _that maybe we should take advantage of this situation. This Monitor knows far more about what's going on around here than we possibly can._

"'This Monitor'? I have a name, thank you very much." The floating construct replied indignantly. "I am 16807 Adjutant Reflex, steward of Installation 06, and I must impress upon you the importance of my title."

Johnson wasn't impressed. "Yeah yeah, you've got a fancy name, but to me you're still just a blinking light who talks too much."

That annoying blinking light was now directly in Johnson's face, as Adjutant Reflex had floated over to him with impressive speed. "You are an unpleasantly disrespectful Reclaimer! Why, if it were not for me, anyone would be able to waltz about on my facility and activate it whenever they pleased!"

_Y-yes, Adjutant Reflex_ Cortana said, sounding as nice as possible in hopes of gaining the Monitor's favor _speaking of which, there is a group here who have been doing just that…_

"Hmph. You speak of the invaders. I am well aware of their presence, and am taking the necessary actions to remove them."

_What can you tell us about their activities, though?_

"They have been most disrespectful of my creators' works! Their scientists are brutally tearing my poor Installation apart from the inside out! I have been sending my Sentinels to stop them, but the invaders are well armed and have resisted my repeated attacks. And now their troops have made attempts to gain entry into my Library! No doubt to steal the Index and subject it to their pokes and prods, no doubt!"

_If only that's all they would do with it. _Cortana muttered. Samus' mind was far from the Index, however, as it insisted on drifting to the Chozo technology that her adopted race had left on this ring.

"Monitor," she said "the gift the Raptors left…where is it?"

Adjutant Reflex stared at her for a moment, as if considering his response. "Well…my creators are no longer present, and it was originally yours, so there is no harm in it, I suppose. When my creators had finished studying their gift, the Raptors gave it a special place of importance near the Library. It is within my capacity to transport you there, if you like."

"I would like that very much, thank you."

"Samus…" the Chief started.

"The Space Pirates are no-doubt beginning to implement their stolen Covenant technology into their existing systems. I need every weapon I can get my hands on to keep up with them. Besides, it's on the way anyway, so it won't take as much time as you might think.

_I'm not entirely sure we have any room to take any chances, though._

"Tell ya what." Johnson interrupted. "I'll go, make sure none a them buggers get their hands on the Index."

"Thank you, Sergeant." Samus said.

"You sure you'll be alright by yourself, Johnson?" the Chief asked.

Johnson gave the Spartan an offended look. "What, you think just cause I'm older than you and not runnin around in some fancy-pants underoos I can't take care of mahself? Kid, I've been blasting aliens since before we had guns, and we had to hit em with sticks while cursin at em!" He gestured to the two super-soldiers. "You two run along now and go pick up your new toys or whatever they are, and then you can come back and clean up after me, as if I'll need it!"

Cortana laughed. _Yes sir, Sergeant sir._ She said playfully.

Samus leaned close to the Chief and whispered. "He's certainly fearless."

"Yeah." He replied solemnly. "He is."

Adjutant Reflex seemed to be growing tired of sitting silently and flew in front of Samus' face. "Are you ready to go, Raptor?"

"Yes."

***

She couldn't even tell they had gone to a different place. One moment, the Monitor was floating in front of her and dozens of Sentinels surrounded them. The next, she and the Chief were standing in a long, poorly lit hallway. Samus looked around for a moment before she noticed that the Master Chief had begun walking off without her. She ran to catch up.

"Chief, is there something wrong?"

He stared at her for a moment before saying very calmly "Just so you know, if Johnson dies because he decided to put on a show and stick his neck out for you, I'm holding you responsible."

"Chief, I…!" she said in surprise. Samus wasn't the only one.

_Chief!! I know this is a bit out of our way, but don't you think that's a bit extreme??_

"Alright, I suppose it was, but I meant it. Friends are scarce when you're constantly fighting, and I'll be damned if I lose yet another one in the line."

He kept walking and Samus followed him.

"What do you mean?"

"There used to more Spartans like me. A life of war isn't easy, so it helped to have a few friendly faces around. Then those faces started to disappear and there was nothing I could do about it. Johnson may not be a Spartan, but he's had my back in plenty of battles, and I plan to keep it that way."

He'd expected her to be shocked by his revelation, that such a lone wolf was capable of such attachments, some part of him wished she did so that she could understand the severity of his situation. But Samus simply nodded her head, patted him on the shoulder and said "Let's make this quick then, we wouldn't want to keep him waiting."

The Chief stopped and stared at her, briefly wondering why she was being so understanding, and it took a prompt from Cortana to get him moving again.

***

The Chozo shrine was modest, only a single large room surrounded by empty hallways. But the Master Chief could definitely sense something very eerie about this place, likely attributed to the feeling that the statues that circled the room were watching him as he walked.

"The Chozo were a bit fond of statues, weren't they?" he said, purposefully understating the matter.

Samus didn't answer him; her gaze was fixed on the largest statue in the center of the room, its hands held forward in an offering position. A purple tube floated slightly above the statue's hands, glowing with a strange light. The Chief at first found it odd that the light seemed familiar to him, but then considered that if this technology was given to the Forerunners, whose creations were now being used by the Covenant, he shouldn't be surprised.

Hesitating momentarily, Samus reached forward and grasped the tube. The light immediately intensified, and the tube dissolved into energy that wreathed itself around Samus before concentrating itself into her arm cannon.

"So…what is it?" The Chief said, moderately interested.

"I'm not sure." Samus replied. "My suit's having a hard time analyzing it, this is some very old hardware, millennia at least."

_Sounds about right._

Samus' suit beeped, and a message appeared on her visor. **Translation complete. Installed hardware updated to Chozo Operating System version 2.05 standards. Needle Missile online and ready for use.**

"Needle Missile…?" Samus wondered aloud.

"A what? A needle Missile?" The Chief repeated.

_That sounds almost like the Needlers the Covenant use. Though all the models I've seen are sidearms, not warheads…Maybe after incorporating the tech given to them by the Chozo, the Forerunners decided to use it differently from its original creators?_

"How does it work?"

Eager to answer that question, Samus fumbled around the inside her arm cannon and found a new button next to the keys used for the Missiles and Seeker Missiles. Before she could test it, however, Cortana suddenly shouted.

_We've got incoming! Motion tracker shows over a dozen bogies approaching from all directions!_

Samus and the Chief quickly turned and aimed their weapons at…nothing. There was nothing there.

"Hey, you sure the radar isn't broken?"

_Positive, and they're getting closer!_

The two super soldiers looked around, trying to find the source of the movement when the Chief suddenly staggered.

"Chief??"

"Something hit me! There's someone here, but they're cloaked!"

He glanced around frantically, but saw nothing; even Elites with active camouflage left a shimmer through the air as they moved, but there wasn't even that. The Chief was struck again, and Samus suddenly realized who they were facing.

"Cortana, see if you can show any sort of thermal readings on the Chief's visor!" she shouted, at the same time activating her Thermal Visor. And there they were; two Shadow Pirates in the room with them already, a dozen more approaching from the surrounding hallways, all with wrist blades bared. The two around the Chief seemed almost amused as they watched him shoot wildly around trying to find his invisible attackers.

_Sorry, it's no good; the Mjolnir's systems just weren't designed for scanning and processing that kind of detailed information!_

"Then I'll be your eyes! Chief, two feet to your left!"

The Spartan complied, spinning around and swinging the butt of his rifle and connecting, sending the surprised Shadow Pirate careening into a wall. Realizing that they were exposed, the Pirates got aggressive; they all charged into the room, blades positioned to strike. Samus took no time blasting the nearest in the face with a charged Power Beam, then sending the next flying with a Missile. The Chief was having a much more difficult time, attempting to find his opponents by sound and radar alone, but Samus called out warnings whenever she had the opportunity; one unfortunate Pirate was stuck with a Plasma Grenade and the resulting explosion exposed another, who was quickly dispatched by a quick few rounds from the Chief's Battle Rifle.

True to their assassin's nature, however, the Shadow Pirates quickly switched priorities from trying to win a losing battle to simply taking out whoever they could before going down, and the remaining Pirates charged towards the Master Chief and pounced on him. Forced to the floor, he swung wildly, striking several blows but missing even more as his shields struggled against the slashing blades all around him.

Samus took aim, but hesitated uncomfortably; half of her arsenal was easily capable of taking out such a tightly-packed group in one shot, but would likely fry the Chief in the process, while the other half was more precise but wouldn't be able to clear out the Pirates before he was chopped into confetti. She decided to gamble on the one unknown factor and fingered the Needle Missile button.

A purple Missile flew out of her arm cannon and suddenly burst into a pinkish cloud midflight; several smaller crystals, now more recognizable as Needler fire, continued along the same flight pattern as the original Missile. They homed in on the nearest Pirates with surprising accuracy and turned the alien troopers into pincushions. Satisfied with the results, Samus fired twice more, each Missile breaking apart midflight and peppering the gathered Pirates with the sharp pinkish crystals. Only a single Pirate survived the onslaught, and now freed from his attackers, the Chief shot a kick in the invisible Pirate's general direction, stunning it and breaking its cloak. He eagerly leapt to his feet and carefully planted a Plasma Grenade on the Pirate's forehead. The Shadow Pirate had a split second to comprehend its predicament before dying it a spectacular burst of blue plasma.

The Chief took a moment to catch his breath and nodded towards Samus. "Thanks for the save. How's that Needle Rocket thing working out for you?"

Her grin was unseen behind her visor as she responded. "Just fine. Fine indeed."


	10. That Old Familiar Feeling

Chapter 10: That Old Familiar Feeling

Sergeant Avery Johnson was having a bad day. It wasn't because he was stuck trekking through an alien world, or because he was battling vicious creatures; those were nothing to him. But if not, he wondered, than what was it? It could be the entire scrap yard's worth of floating robots hovering around him.

"Do pay attention, Reclaimer; as we exit this hallway, there will be a fantastic sculpture to your left. Truly, my creators were exceptional artists, and their brilliance is not to be ignored."

Of course, it could also be this ridiculous talking light bulb that was giving a museum curator's tour of the Library when what it SHOULD be doing is directing him to the nearest Space Pirate so Johnson could exercise his itchy trigger finger. But no, it wasn't either of those things. As he thought on it, an image of a beautiful blonde woman clad in orange armor flashed through his mind, followed by the uncomfortable feeling of realization; was that it? Was he jealous of his best friend? Johnson was quick to drive it from his thoughts; there would be a time and place for fighting over a woman's attention, and right now he needed to concentrate on fighting whatever scum the galaxy had decided to throw at him.

"Reclaimer? Your attention is required."

Johnson turned to Adjutant Reflex and answered with a snarl. "Listen, Tinkerbell, if this is another damn painting…"

"A contingent of Invaders are approaching. As your fleshy frame lacks protection, it is advised that you place a priority on self-defense."

Johnson grinned and loaded his shotgun. "It's about time…"

***

Pirate Aerial Recon Squad Epsilon stood watch along the facility's perimeter. When they had first arrived at this facility, referred to as a 'Library' by this ring-world's creators, holding their position had been difficult, as the Sentinels that patrolled this Halo were adamant about keeping them out of the Library. But now that the Sentinels were preoccupied by their reinforcements, Squad Epsilon gained a much-welcomed respite. Their luck and their break, unfortunately, both met their end when the Hunter arrived with her new ally in tow. And when the much-loathed Hunter attacked them with a strange new weapon, hurling crystalline projectiles at them which chased their targets and skewered them with dozens of tiny shrapnel, the unanimous statement of the few survivors before meeting their demise was "Oh no, not AGAIN."

The Master Chief lowered his rifle as the last Pirate collapsed into a bloody heap and charged into the Library's elephantine halls without waiting for Samus. If there were Space Pirates outside the Library, alone and unchallenged, it meant that they were inside too, and it meant that Johnson was in danger. He was forced to abandon his long-time companion on High Charity, when it meant rescuing the Sergeant or saving the universe, but he wasn't going to let it happen this time.

The Library itself was silent, save for the sounds of armored feet against the stone floors, and the silence was unsettling. This was normal for these long-forgotten Forerunner facilities, but now it also meant that whatever fighting that was going on was far from here. Johnson was alone with the Monitor and the Sentinels, neither of which could be trusted entirely. The Chief ran harder.

Here and there, Pirate corpses and Sentinel debris littered the otherwise pristine floors. Most of the corpses were of the jet-pack-equipped variant that Samus had identified as Aerotroopers, but there were a few that the Chief hadn't seen before. They wore much heavier armor than their comrades, with a wicked, foot-long scythe encompassing their entire left arm and a similarly shaped helmet covering their entire head. He made a mental note to ask Samus about them later, after he was sure that Johnson wasn't in any danger, and continued running.

Finally he reached the central chamber, the multi-floor room that held the Index on display at its top level. The Chief's arrival was met with the very familiar sound of a shotgun being fired followed by Johnson shouting "Come and get me, ya oversized cockroaches!"

_Sergeant Johnson!_ Cortana called up to him.

"_Hey kids, what kept you? I've had nothin but tin-cans and bug-eyed freaks to keep me company."_ The Sergeant answered through his transmitter.

_Sorry to keep you waiting. What's your situation?_

"_My situation's that I'm up to my ass in alien bastards, what do you think??Just hurry on up, I'll figure something out. And don't take your time either, there's something else here with the Pirates."_

_Covenant?_

"_Think there might be a few of them pokin around too, but I'm talking about something else, something big. It's makin a royal mess, and the Sentinels are trying to keep it occupied, but they're not havin much luck."_

_We'll be there as soon as we can._

The Chief could hear Samus approaching behind him and turned to face her. "Johnson's hanging in there, but he doesn't have much time."

She nodded. "Then let's not wait to join him."

***

So much like insects they were, buzzing about him, making every effort to bar his passage. It was delightfully unfortunate, however, that their mighty weapons were but an annoyance to him and nothing more. A swipe of his hand sent robotic Sentinels flying, and when he unleashed his full firepower against them, they fell before his onslaught. Only one dared stand and face him, and it was the tiniest of them all, the bright light on its face blinking rapidly as it spoke.

"Leave this facility at once, Invader! The Index is not yours to claim! It is reserved for another!"

He chuckled; the audacity of this machine to believe it could order him around! He opened his mouth to silence it for good…

"I implore you to cease this fruitless behavior! My casing is quite capable of withstanding your weaponry, as has been proven while you destroyed my Sentinels!"

If it wasn't so much of an irritation, he would be amused by this little robot. "I have other ways of removing you from my path, gnat, and will exercise them if you do not move of your own volition."

"Even if I wanted to, I could not! I am programmed to defend this Installation with my very existence, if need be!"

"Suit yourself…" he nodded to one of the other Pirates, all of whom were standing idly on the other side of the room so as not to place themselves in their master's path. Upon his command, the Pirate bounded forward and pounced on the Monitor.

***

The lift slowed as it reached the top floor, but the two super soldiers didn't wait for it to completely stop before charging out into the adjacent hall.

As they ran, Samus glanced around at their surroundings and was dismayed to find that they looked exactly like the rooms in all the other floors they had traveled through. "How could the Forerunners find their way around this place; it all looks the same!"

The Chief didn't turn to answer her, but merely grumbled with a bit of nostalgia "At least this is your first time here."

Before Samus could ask him to clarify, Cortana shouted _Chief, incoming! Watch out!_

He skidded to a halt, barely avoiding colliding with the bounty hunter behind him, as a dozen heavily-armored Pirates descended from the ceiling and spread out to block their passage.

The Chief recognized them as the unfamiliar corpses from earlier, and so nodded in Samus' direction and said "Samus, what are these guys, I haven't seen their type before."

"Beam Troopers." She answered. "Elite troopers with weapons and armor powered by the same energy that my weapons use."

He glanced down almost hesitantly at the arm cannon on her suit that dealt out death and destruction literally single-handedly. "The same juice that your beams use?"

She nodded. "Hence their name."

The lead Trooper brandished his scythe, roared and charged at the pair with his comrades close behind. "Then this should be interesting…"


	11. It Takes Two Dozen To Tango

Chapter 11: It Takes Two-Dozen To Tango

Over the span of a few seconds, everyone moved at once. Samus's arm cannon began to glow as it started to charge up energy, and she moved into a position to fire it without waiting for the charge to finish. The Master Chief pulled his hands out from behind his back, one hand clutching a shotgun while the other holding a frag grenade. And several Beam Troopers rushed towards them with foot-long scythes brandished and Galvanic Accelerator cannons aimed high, intending to remove the heads of both the armored warriors before them.

The Chief ducked down to avoid the sudden burst of laser fire sent in his direction and threw the grenade in an underhanded toss; the Pirates were clustered so close together, he figured he might be able to take a few of them out before they can surround the pair. The grenade exploded in their midst and caused the few directly on top of the explosion to stagger, but the remaining troopers just ignored the shrapnel flying in their faces and continued to close the distance. _When Samus said they were tough,_ he thought _she must not've been kidding._

"About how many of these things can you take?"

Samus followed the full charge of her arm cannon with a Super Missile that enveloped one of the lead Troopers in a blinding explosion that sent it flying backward, but left its comrades unfazed. "I usually have some trouble with five or six at once. There are about three times as many here. Could you watch my back?"

The Chief pumped his shotgun. "I was gonna ask you the same thing."

Before there could be any more words, the Pirates were on top of them. The first Beam Trooper to reach the Chief received a shotgun blast to the face, cracking its armor and causing it to stumble backward. The second didn't wait for the first to recover and simply shoved it out of the way, forcing the Chief to take a quick step backward, as the Trooper's scythe sliced the air his head was in a moment ago. The Chief swung the butt of his shotgun into the Pirate's face, hoping to knock it off balance long enough to blast it as well, but the Trooper caught the Spartan's arm in its offhand and raised its scythe to strike again. The Chief swung his body downward, forcing the Pirate to take his full weight, planting his foot in the Pirate's gut as the Trooper lurched forward and stunning it long enough to press his shotgun against its helmet and pull the trigger. This, finally, had the desired effect, as the Pirate bellowed and fell backwards to lie unmoving. The Master Chief didn't have long to enjoy his victory, however, as the fallen Pirate's half-dozen or so angry comrades scrambled to take its place.

Samus was faring better against the surrounding Pirates, but only just. She knew that her charged Power Beam, with its concussive effects, was highly effective against these armored elites, but the problem was keeping them out of her face long enough to complete the charge. She ducked out of the way of a slashing scythe, moving forward and allowing her momentum to carry her quickly into Morph Ball form and between the Pirate's legs; she made certain to leave a few Morph Bombs behind her as thanks, and the explosive charges knocked the Trooper off its feet. Back in human form, she leapt high into the air, a barrage of laser shots close behind her. A Missile to the face disoriented the shooter, and a Space Jump spin for additional height gave her the time she needed to manage a full charge. As she landed, she spun around and planted a charged blast into the dazed Pirate's back, hurling it forward. His fellow Troopers answered with a barrage of laser shots, and Samus' shield burned brightly with absorbed blasts as she made a few quick steps to avoid further assault.

Meanwhile, the Master Chief cursed heavily as he tried to avoid getting hit long enough to reload his shotgun. He finally found sanctuary behind a pillar and tossed out a frag grenade along with a quick burst of SMG fire to ward off his pursuers while he pulled out the next clip and frantically loaded the rounds into his shotgun. He had just started to wonder when the Pirates were going to come after him when he heard Samus call out "Chief!!"

The Pirates who had been attacking the Spartan had decided that rather than chase after their hiding prey, they would turn their attention to the Hunter, and she was now surrounded and frantically trying to force her way out, a Wavebuster beam dancing around wildly. The Chief jumped out from behind his cover and pumped his shotgun as he ran. A quick blast into the back of the nearest Pirate staggered it, and he forced it further forward with a swift kick. As it stumbled, he placed a live plasma grenade on its back and pushed his way past it. The dazed Pirate stumbled into his fellows and exploded in a burst of blue plasma and Phazite armor. The Chief slid up behind Samus to stand back-to-back with her.

"Chief! I thought you'd-!"

"I didn't." he said solemnly. "I wouldn't."

Samus didn't answer, but simply nodded.

"So" he said, loading another round into his shotgun "why don't we give this teamwork thing everyone's so keen on a try?"

"Right."

The Beam Troopers resumed their assault, but they were no longer taking advantage of a lone target. The Chief tossed his last plasma grenade over his shoulder while Samus launched a Missile in the same direction; a Pirate's death rattle told him that both explosives had found their intended target. He raised his shotgun towards the nearest Trooper, whose scythe was an inch from the Chief gut, and blasted it in the face, forcing it backward. As she fired her next Missile, Samus used her free hand to shove the Chief, and the Spartan carried the momentum with him as he swung his weapon, striking the blasted Pirate hard and sending it to the floor. Coming to a stop over the fallen Pirate, the Chief spun around and delivered another shotgun blast into the face of his floored opponent. Laser shots peppered his shields, bringing them to critical levels, but Samus dove in the way, using her own substantially more powerful shields to protect him from further attack. Firing her arm cannon rapidly, she held off the Pirates approaching from the right while the Chief, waiting on his shields to recharge, stuck his SMG out from behind his living cover and held back the Pirates approaching from the left. The two approaching from the center slashed their scythes at Samus, but before they could get second hits in, Samus back flipped over the Chief while the Spartan rolled his last frag grenade onto the floor in front of them. He ran forward right after it exploded, punching one in the face and giving the other a blast from his shotgun. A charged Power Beam blast finished off the punched Trooper, bringing the remaining Pirates down to six. The Chief cursed as he found his shotgun empty and without any extra rounds. As he threw it into the face of the nearest Pirate, Samus dashed forward in her Morph Ball form, leaving Bombs in her wake to cover their backs. In his best soccer kick, the Chief pulled his foot back and let loose, kicking the Morph Ball Samus into the same Pirate he'd thrown the shotgun at. Charging a boost as she flew, releasing the extra burst of speed just as she hit her target, hurling the battered Trooper against the wall where it lay still. Meanwhile, the Chief pulled out both his freshly loaded SMG and a Plasma Rifle he'd picked up and emptied out both onto the remaining Pirates gathered together. While their attention was focused on the Chief, Samus tapped out a few commands on her arm cannon's interface and charged up her Seeker Missile. She fired the burst of explosives, but instead of regular Missiles, Needle Missiles flew out. The barrage of sharp crystals felled most of the Troopers, and last the thing the remaining one saw was the Master Chief's fist headed straight for its face.

The last Pirate crumpled to the floor, and the two super soldiers breathed out heavily.

"Chief, you alright?"

"I'll live. You?"

"The same."

After catching his breath, the Chief remembered why they were there: "Johnson."

***

In all his years of as Monitor of Installation 06, Adjutant Reflex had never met such a mischievous creature. This Invader seemed to delight in tormenting the little robot, even as he very politely insisted that it was out of line.

"Now see here-!" The Pirate kicked it against the wall and cackled. "You have no right-!" The Pirate stamped on it with its foot, taking great pleasure in making the chatty robot frustrated. That was the last thought it had, however, as a shot rang out and the Pirate fell limply to the floor. Samus and the Chief ran over, the latter lowering his Battle Rifle.

"Oh! Reclaimer! Raptor! I am grateful for your assistance, that Invader was being most unpleasant-!"

"Johnson!" the Chief said, not waiting for it to finish. "Where's Johnson?"

"Oh my…I believe the other Reclaimer was guarding the Index. The large Invader was headed in that direction, however, and I am not sure if he is still alive."

"Large Pirate…?"

Samus pulled on the Chief's arm. "Ridley; come on!"

***

The door to the Index chamber slid open and the two super soldiers ran through into the remnants of a massacre. The floor was littered with the corpses of Pirates and the remains of broken Sentinels. At the other end of the walkway, blocking the Index with his body, was Sergeant Johnson, looking up at the massive Pirate general, Ridley.

"Well" the human said fearlessly, even as he stared into the eye of death itself. "Ain't you the ugliest mother I've EVER seen."

Ridley let out a shrieking laugh. "Now aren't you the strangest mammal I've ever met."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

As he ran forward, the Chief shouted "Johnson, DOWN!"

But he was too late; Ridley flicked the shotgun out of the Sergeant's hands, clutched the human in one massive claw and extracted the Index's container in the other. He glanced at the two approaching super soldiers, chuckled, and with a flap of his massive wings, he was gone.


	12. Riot Gears

Chapter 12: Riot Gears

UNSC Pelican Delta 063 drifted lazily through the empty skies of Zeta Halo, the dropship seemingly enjoying its solitude. The few scorch marks on the sides of the ship indicated this was not always a lonely flight, but as it closed the distance with the Halo's Library, it did so without interference.

Sergeant Fenix ran one last check of their inventory before they arrived at their destination. They hadn't had time to hook a vehicle up to the Pelican, but it had let them run light and fast, and meant that they could bring a few more munitions than was recommended. Grabbing an Assault Rifle for himself and strapping it to his back, he passed two of his only crewmates on his way to his cockpit where the third was piloting them towards the Library with a look of discomfort on his face.

"Hey, Baird," he said as he approached "You practicing your horse impersonations for a reason?"

"It's cause I don't wanna be here, Fenix, you know that as well as I do."

"What, we get a few Banshees on our tail and you decide to chicken out on us?"

"I didn't wanna be here in the first place! Whole place has turned into a damn warzone, but hey, guess what, it ain't our war for once! So why the hell are we still here?"

"Commander Keyes did say this was a volunteer-only mission, so why'd you still sign on?"

"Well, none of you idiots know how to fly a Pelican, so how were you supposed to get to the rendezvous point? Walk? Besides, Cole's my buddy, I ain't about to abandon him to some suicide mission."

In response to this, the aforementioned heavy-set black man poked his head into the cockpit and said with a childish smirk. "Who loves ya, baby!"

Baird mumbled "Yeah, yeah, warm fuzzies all around…"

Bemused by his unhappy subordinate's show of comradary, Fenix leaned over and said "Well hey, I bet I could find a manual somewhere around here, you give me five minutes with it and I'll fly us the rest of the mission. Hell, we'll even drop you off at this Library and swing around to pick you up when we're done. Shouldn't be too hard to figure this thing out…"

"Excuse me?!" Baird said, obviously insulted. "You think this stuff's easy?? Took me years to get this good, no way in hell you're gonna get the hang of it in five minutes!"

"Then" Fenix said with mock disappointment "I guess you're gonna have to stick around, huh?"

As he turned and walked back into the main compartment he heard Baird reply "You're damn right I am…Show you cocky bastards what real piloting looks like…" Private Cole sat chuckling in the corner, while Private Santiago sat at the rear end, scanning the ground with a sniper rifle as they flew over it. As he heard Fenix approach, Dom turned to face him. "Hey man, how you holding up?"

"Aside from the fact that I got a pissy pilot and a skeleton crew, I'm as good as could be expected."

"I can't believe nobody else was willing to go with us."

"Buncha cowards, is all they are. They're full of talk when they've got a Spartan backin em up, but tell them to go out and fight on their own and they're quakin in their boots to whole time. Least I know you got my back…"

"You got that right."

"…and Cole was happier than a kid in a candy store to run off into the line of fire…"

"Hey, man!" Cole called out from the back of the compartment. "I ain't missin action like this for the world!"

"…which means we've got Baird too, even though he'd rather be back at the ship with his Tinker toys. Least we got plenty of ammo to go around."

Dom smirked as he turned back to face the ground below them. "I'll try and save some for ya."

Baird leaned his head out of the cockpit and shouted "Fenix! We're almost there, and Cortana's calling us!"

As the sergeant returned to the cockpit, Baird flipped a switch on his ship's com system. "This is Delta 063, go ahead Cortana."

_What's your ETA, Delta?_

"About 60 seconds. We'll land and then…"

_Don't bother, we don't have the time. Just cruise by low enough and slow enough for us to hop on board and then we'll brief you on your next destination._

Baird seemed a bit taken aback. "Er…aye aye, ma'am…"

"In a bit of a rush, are they?" Fenix said as the Pelican dropped down low enough that the Master Chief and Samus could jump on. Dom seemed a bit nervous to be around the armored super soldiers, but Cole simply grinned, bouncing in his seat almost giddily as the pair passed through the main compartment and into the cockpit.

"It's time for the real fireworks to go off, uhhh HUH!"

"Man, you've been like that since we left base, don't you ever get tired?" Dom said, slightly exasperated.

Cole seemed almost insulted by the implication. "Hell to the no!"

***

As the Chief and Samus entered the cockpit, he and Fenix nodded to each other. As the Chief placed his hand on one of the Pelican's consoles, Cortana appeared on one of the display screens.

_Glad you boys could make it._

"Sergeant Fenix, ma'am, you need back-up, we'll be here any day of the week."

The AI grinned. _Well, that's certainly comforting._ Turning to Baird, she said _Private, I'll need you to take us to these coordinates._ A destination showed up on Baird's navigational display, and he made a double-take after reading them.

"Uh, Cortana, these coordinates are for the Halo's Control Room."

_That's correct._

"But that's the Space Pirate landing site. They've got that place locked down tighter than the stick up Fenix's ass."

Fenix rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

Cortana eyed them curiously for a moment. _Colorful analogies aside, the Pirates have stolen the Index and captured Sergeant Johnson, and if we're going to get them both back, that's where we need to go. Think you can handle it?_

"Ohh, hell n-" Baird started, but Fenix cut him off.

"You've got it. I said we've got your backs, and I keep my word. Now, Baird, how about setting course for the nice lady's destination?"

"Yes sir." The mechanic replied through gritted teeth.

***

As they flew on, Fenix unloaded their weapons lockers. Dumping his empty shotgun and SMGs, the Chief picked up a fresh Battle Rifle and loaded himself up with as many grenades and extra clips as would fit onto the sides of his suit.

"So, Cortana" he said as he worked "what's the plan?"

_Well, fortunately, Commander Keyes hasn't been twiddling her thumbs while we were chasing after the Index. Her scout teams managed to get us a good layout of the Pirate base and a rough evaluation of its defenses._

"And?"

_They landed most of their ships in a perimeter around the Control Room, and have the entire area pretty heavily fortified. We're talking about a hundred anti-air turrets distributed throughout, maybe even two._

"So a direct landing's out of the picture."

_Outside of that, the most direct route to the Control Room is a long canyon, but they've got it filled with barricades, traps and all kinds of other defenses. Hoofing it won't be easy either._

"Don't suppose we'll be able to fight our way in."

_Not unless we had an army to back us up._

Samus, who had been staring out of the main hatch while listening to their conversation, called over "We might have one. Take a look."

They were drawing close to the Control Room, and there was a great deal of movement on the surface miles below them. Thousands of Covenant were marching across the plains in the direction of the Control room, complete with armor and air support. Moving up to the cockpit, they could see several explosions on the horizon ahead of them.

"Looks like somebody's started the party without us." Fenix said almost absentmindedly.

***

The canyon separating the neighboring plains from the Control Room was as heavily fortified as had been described, with barricades erected every few yards and towering a few stories over the ground. But the first few blockades had already been toppled, with Covenant troops pressing forward into the canyon. The corpses and wrecked vehicles littering the ground indicated the ferocity of the defending Pirates; laser turrets lined the tops of the barricades and rained death down upon the approaching Covenant, while Beam Troopers rushed out to meet their attackers. But while the aggressive tactics and brutal weaponry of the Pirates had caught the Covenant off guard during their initial engagements, zeal now overrode whatever fears they had; despite the heavy casualties they were suffering, the Covenant forces pressed onward relentlessly, making slow but steady progress.

"Tell me we're not going through that." Baird whimpered.

_Straight through, Private._

Ignoring Baird as he replied "I think I just wet myself…" Fenix turned to Cortana and said "We're here, so what are your orders?"

_Well…_ Cortana began hesitantly.

"Couldn't we just wait for the Covenant to make further progress before moving in?" Samus suggested.

The Master Chief shook his head. "No. We need to get to Johnson first and get him out of here, and we're not going to do that by playing follow the leader with the Covenant."

His earlier complaints ignored, Baird leaned over his controls lazily staring at the carnage unfolding in the canyon with mild interest. His eyes lingered on a number of openings and cliffs dotting the sides of the canyon.

"Why don't we just go through there?"

Everyone stopped and looked to where he was pointing.

_Those…look like caves lining the sides of the canyon._

"Could we get through those unnoticed?"

_It doesn't look like they go all the way through; they form some side passages along the canyon, but the Pirates must know about them; they've got their blockades positioned so that there's no way around them. We could at least approach the barricades without drawing too much attention…but the only way past is over those walls._

"Then how about this," Samus said "The Chief and I will move in and use the side passages to be discreet; if we time it right, we should be able to at least rush our way past their defenses while they're occupied with the Covenant. Sergeant Fenix and his squad will stay in the Pelican and give us air support; if we're going to put some distance between us and this army, we could use a diversion to get past the subsequent walls."

_What about those anti-air turrets?_

Samus glanced over at Baird. "Private…uh…" She paused, realizing she didn't actually know his name.

"Baird" he answered, then adding almost sheepishly "Er…ma'am."

"How good of a pilot are you?"

Baird's face lit up like a neon sign. "Just about one of the best in the Corps. "

"How confident are you that you can evade the fire from those turrets ahead?" Samus said, indicating the anti-air turrets positioned along the tops of the canyon.

His initial reaction was to say "No way in hell", but he hesitated. This wasn't just Fenix pushing him into something against his will…this was the lady all the boys back at base were talking about; the one with skills on par with the legendary Spartan and equally killer looks. And here she was asking for his help.

So he turned to her and said with a bit of a cocky smile "They'll never even be able to land a hit on the old girl."

Unnoticed by the others in the cockpit, Fenix almost doubled over in silent laughter. But as doubtful as she was of Baird's claim, Samus found his confidence encouraging. "Then I'll leave it up to you to watch our backs."

As Cortana jumped back into the Chief's suit and he and Samus left the cockpit, Fenix stared at Baird with a sly grin.

"You are such a sucker for the chicks, man."

Baird's face turned red as he grasped the Pelican's controls and sent it down towards the rocks at the edge of the canyon. "Screw you, Fenix."


	13. The Marathon Speedrun

Chapter 13: The Marathon Speedrun

Pelican Delta 063 descended to the rocky hillside neighboring the entrance to the Control Room canyon unimpeded, either unnoticed by the Covenant army entering the canyon or ignored in favor of the Space Pirates barring their passage. Samus and the Master Chief disembarked and began to make their way into the caves lining the canyon, the entrance barely large enough for them to slip through.

_We'll radio you once we've bypassed the first barricade, Delta. For now, stay out of the line of fire, it won't do us any good if you get shot down before we need you._

"_Roger that, Delta out."_

Baird's response was somewhat muffled by a violently exploding Wraith, its shrapnel flying several feet into the air. The fighting had begun to intensify; the Pirates had captured a handful of Covenant vehicles in previous engagements and had now brought these refitted weapons out to help them defend their fortifications. A modified Spectre sped around on enhanced engines, the Pirate Troopers hanging out of its sides looking more like a pack of college drunks out for a joyride than a squad of soldiers, nonetheless eviscerating the Covenant infantry before them with a barrage of laser fire. A Wraith with a pair of turrets precariously mounted onto its sides provided the Pirate defenders with sufficient artillery support, despite its presence only furthering the rage of the Covenant forces. Both sides were bringing all of their heavy weapons to bear; all of them, except…

"I wonder where that giant walker is from earlier?" Samus said as the two of them looked out over the carnage.

"The Scarab? I'm sure we'll see it sooner or later. Though I'm not sure if we really want to."

Edging their way along the shadows of the canyon, they got themselves as close to the Space Pirate barricade as possible without drawing attention to themselves.

"Cortana, keep an eye on things, let us know when we've got the best shot at running the wall as we can."

_Will do._

The Chief leaned himself against the wall and leisurely watched the battle play itself out. Elites and Pirate Troopers collided, energy swords and arm blades flashing through the air. Fuel Rod rounds arced their way through the sky, crossing paths with concussive grenades fired in the opposite directions. Banshees abandoned their normal altitude advantage by diving straight for the Pirate fortifications. Hunters and Elite Pirates traded blows amidst Wraiths trading artillery rounds. The two human soldiers were silent for a few minutes, save for the sounds of the two alien forces tearing each other apart, until Samus broke the silence.

"Déjà vu."

"Hm?"

"Remember? It was when all of this started; the two of us sitting off to the side while our mortal enemies beat the living tar out of each other."

The Chief nodded. "It was a nice change of pace. Sort of wish it could happen more often…and that the stakes weren't so high."

Hidden behind her visor, Samus bit her lip. "Chief…about Johnson…"

He turned away from her. "I told you I didn't want to talk about that."

"That was when we were waiting outside the Library, and you said you needed some time to cool off. And seeing as this might be the last bit of downtime we're going to get for awhile…"

"You thought you'd jump the gun, huh? Thought that maybe you'd catch me in a good mood?"

"I'm not much for gambling, but I figured that this once I'd-"

"Samus." The Chief said curtly. She stopped mid-sentence and waited for him to continue. He was silent for a moment, as if he was contemplating his response.

"…I don't blame you for what happened to Johnson." He said, finally. "It's not like he hasn't gotten himself in trouble before, and if I went around trying to find someone to blame every time it happened, well…I wouldn't be too popular, now would I?"

She nodded. "I suppose not."

"Plus, he'd probably come to me telling me that I'm smothering him and he needs his space, and you know how uncomfortable THAT would be."

Samus smirked. "Heaven forbid you would ever be put in such a situation."

"Pretty much. But here's the other thing…"

"Yes?"

"When it came down to it…I could've gone with him. Maybe stopped this from happening. But I made my choice. I knew who I wanted with me if and when things went south. And I don't regret it."

Unseen, Samus' eyes widened. "Chief…"

"You agree, right?"

She hesitated…for a brief moment. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Glad to hear it. Cortana, what's our situation?"

The AI was unusually silent, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the Spartan. "Cortana?"

_Y-yeah, it's almost time. It's…just get ready to move, guys._

Over at the wall, the constant influx of Covenant troops had pushed the Pirate defenders back onto their side of the barricade. Though smoldering wreckage and strewn corpses littered the ground in front of the barricade, the few survivors from the Covenant's last push were taking advantage of the Pirate's partial retreat and pressing forward up the wall's battlements. The two armored super soldiers had a few seconds of respite before the next wave of Covenant troops came within firing range.

The Chief pulled out his Battle Rifle and fired it up. "Showtime."

Samus began charging her Arm Cannon and nodded. "Showtime."

***

They ran. The weight of their suits balanced out by the onboard hydraulics, they ran like two Olympic athletes who had just left the starting line. The remains on the battlefield were a blur as they sped past them, across the rocky ground, up the ramp leading to the wall's top, weapons blazing almost non-stop. Whatever they couldn't shoot out of their way, they shoved and pushed their way past. Startled Covenant Elites and Pirate Troopers, shocked to see the Demon and the Hunter suddenly in their midst, their attention divided between their multitude of enemies, sent a few poorly-aimed shots in their direction, but could do little to stop their charge. Instead of taking the opposite ramp down, they simply took a flying leap off the wall and hit the ground running, already headed for the sides of the canyon, drawing confused gazes from the Pirate reinforcements approaching the breached barricade. There would be no waiting this time; they would use the caves to mask their approach, but would attempt to bypass each wall as quickly as possible.

As they approached the next barricade, Cortana put in a call to their diversion. _Delta, we're about to hit the next objective, begin your run._

"_Roger that, Delta out."_

Now out in the open, the Pirate Troopers stationed on this wall wasted no time in training all of their formidable weaponry on the two trespassers. But no sooner had they released their initial salvos when a low-flying Pelican passed over their heads, spraying bullets from chainguns all over the defenders with little attention to aim. A Beam Trooper blocked their way up the ramp, but rather than deal with the elite warrior, the Chief simply shoved him over the side and continued his way upward. The Pelican made another pass over the wall, a few grenades tossed out of its rear hatch for good measure along with an encore of their previous barrage, but this time it was drawing a great deal of attention from both the canyon's defenders and the anti-air turrets outside of the canyon.

_Delta, fall back, we're almost in the clear!_

There was no response this time, and Samus had the chilling feeling that perhaps giving orders to others was not her forte, and her inadequacy might result in more than a few deaths… She quickly shook such thoughts from her mind; now was not the time for doubt. She punctuated the point with a few Needle Missiles aimed at the Troopers blocking their path and followed the Chief as they again took a flying leap off the wall and continued their mad dash up the canyon. Only two barricades now separated them from the main Pirate stronghold, but Cortana was still unable to get in touch with the Delta squad.

"Keep trying!" the Chief said to reassure her. "We'll keep moving, and hope for the best!"

The one thing going for them was that the Pirates stationed at this wall were still too far from the battle to be on their guard…or so they thought. To say that they were surprised to see a pair of armored super soldiers charging them would be an understatement, and the two were already climbing the barricade's ramp by the time the defenders had recovered their senses and opened fire on them. A well-aimed plasma grenade from the Chief and a Super Missile from Samus took out the two turrets nearest to them, but a handful of the Troopers and Aerotroopers manning the wall spread themselves out like a net, hoping to catch the pair like a fisherman snatching his prey out of a churning river. But the Aerotroopers quickly realized that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the Delta Pelican came barreling out of the sky and rammed right through their formation, turning most of them into mid-air road kill. Samus and the Chief took the opportunity to muscle their way past the angry Troopers, picking up a few followers as they charged past the wall and went straight for their final obstacle. The Chief tossed a few grenades over his shoulder as laser blasts whizzed past their heads and they neared the end of the canyon.

After a few panicked reports of the Hunter and her companion pushing their way past their defenses, the Pirate in command of the last wall had decided to call in the cavalry. Pirate Commandos formed miniatures walls of their own with their bodies and their shields, and a few Elite Pirates had been recalled from the front lines. Upon seeing the new arrivals, Samus began charging up her Plasma Beam, and a fully powered blast knocked the closest Elite Pirate off its massive feet. The two knew that momentum alone wasn't going to get them by here, so they halted their run and set to the task of clearing their obstacles rather than avoiding them.

The three Elite Pirates directly in front of the wall posed the initial problem. Samus let loose with every bit of firepower her Plasma Beam had, bringing the first Elite to its knees and finishing it off with another Super Missile. The Chief had a bit more difficulty with his target, as the beast's Phazon-infused armor plating prevented it from taking much damage from his Rifle, until he realized that the artillery cannon on its back was running rather hot, and introduced it to a few plasma grenades. The weakened Elite Pirate staggered, allowing him to plant enough bullets into the creature's head to penetrate its thick skull and bring it down for good. The third, which had been initially knocked down by Samus, recovered its footing and sent a shockwave through the ground with a single massive fist to the earth. Taking a moment to recover their own footing, the two concentrated their firepower to send the Elite back to the ground permanently, then rushed past its corpse to get atop the wall.

The Pirate Commandos atop the wall were taking a much more defensive approach to battle, forming a phalanx of shields while hurling grenades and concussive blasts at the pair. The explosive effects of the Chief's own grenades and Samus' Missiles caused a few of them to crumple, but the group as a whole remained resolute.

Shielding her face from another grenade's shrapnel, Samus scanned their line. They were well-coordinated; they had wasted little time in reforming their line to take into account the gaps their fallen created, and they were slowly pushing forward. If they could only make a large enough break in their formation for her to slip in a Wavebuster, she thought to herself, despite coming up empty on possible methods for causing such a break. Four loud shots rang out, and the four Commandos on the left of the formation collapsed. Samus glanced over to once again see the Delta Pelican, now looking the worse for wear as scorch marks covered its back ends, fly past the wall and Private Santiago give a quick salute while reloading his sniper rifle. By the time the Commandos realized their flank had been exposed, Samus was already charging up her Wave Beam.

***

"Will you look at that? No one here to greet us." The Chief said, loading another clip into his Battle Rifle.

_So much for hospitality._ Cortana replied with a chuckle.

With the bulk of their forces inside the canyon attempting to fend off the Covenant, the main entrance to the Space Pirate stronghold resembled a ghost town more than a fortress; guard stations went unmanned and tools were left strewn about.

_Delta, do you copy? What's your status?_

"_Our status is that we've been shot to hell! The primary power generator's blown, the windshield's cracked, the landing gear's busted…!"_

_Baird…_

"…_not to mention I think I lost a starboard stabilizer…!"_

_Private Damon Baird!_

"_Er…yes ma'am?"_

_I take it your Pelican's in need of repairs?_

"_You've got that right…uh, ma'am."_

_Chief, hit that button over there._ The Spartan glanced around, not sure what he was looking for, until Cortana marked a control console at one of the guard stations on his HUD. _That controls the turret defense network. It won't take long for someone else in the base to notice they've been tampered with and turn them back on, but that'll give Delta a chance to move in._

"_Uh…ma'am?"_ Baird said, afraid that he had been forgotten.

_Head for these coordinates. There's a servicing station not far from our position. We'll rendezvous there, then while the three of us go look for our missing Sergeant, you and your squad can see to your repairs. Then we can all get the hell out of here. Sound like a plan?_

There was a brief pause before his response. _"You…you want us to get CLOSER to the guys who have been trying to kill us?"_

_*ahem* Does that sound like a plan, Private Baird?_

"_Uh…aye aye ma'am…aye aye…"_


	14. Reminiscence of Norfair

Chapter 14: Reminiscence of Norfair

At the sound of rapid gunfire and a boisterous shout of "Aw yeah, I've got enough for ALL a y'all!" from the nearby servicing station, Samus and the Chief exchanged questioning glances and quickened their pace. It seemed the Pirate base wasn't as vacant as the main entrance had indicated, as the crew of the half-landed half-crashed Delta Raven where now furiously defending their dropship from Pirate technicians and a swarm of Sentry Drones. An exuberant Cole sprayed the repair bay with chaingun fire, laughing hysterically as Troopers tried desperately to shield themselves from his barrage and defense drones literally went to pieces. Baird worked frantically on the repairs for his ship while casting nervous glances at the firefight raging around him, while Fenix stood blocking the mechanic with his body.

The two super soldiers edged their way around the side of the room to stand next to Fenix and Baird.

_How're those repairs coming, Private?_

"Could be better! The Pelican didn't have too many spare parts on her, so I've had to snatch quite a bit of tech from the Pirate supplies. Course, most of this stuff wasn't designed to be used on a Pelican, so I'm gonna have to jury-rig quite a few things."

_Can you get her sky-worthy again?_

He laughed half-heartedly. "I guess we're gonna find out, huh?"

_We'll send Johnson to back you up once we've found him. Just hold your position and work on those repairs; we're not leaving until we've found the Index._

Samus noticed that Baird was muttering angrily to himself as the Chief left, and so she leaned over to him and said "Thanks for looking out for us, Baird. You were a big help back there."

The cranky mechanic's face took on a shade of red as he stammered in reply. "H-Hey, no problem. Just doin my job and all that, y-y'know?"

As she left, Baird could hear Fenix chuckling to himself. "YOU. SHUT. THE HELL. UP, FENIX!"

***

"Explain to me, gentlemen, why our situation has worsened to such a degree." Despite being a few floors down the long stairwell at the center of the Pirate base, Samus and Chief could hear the Pirates talking at the top of the shaft clearly. The one that had just spoken, a high-pitched and reptilian voice that caused Samus to visibly tense up when they had heard it, continued with the same tinge of barely-contained anger. "And make it good, or you may not live to see me rectify the matter."

The voice that followed was equally familiar, but elicited a much more positive reaction from the super soldiers. "Listen, lizard face, if this is a bad time, I could always come back later…"

"Be quiet, human." The reptilian voice responded impatiently.

"If I may Lord Ridley," a third voice answered "I am afraid the current situation with our forward defenses is due to an infiltration. The squad leaders in command of each fortification have all reported sightings of the Hunter and her Demon companion bypassing our defenses during the engagement with the Covenant. Our air defense grid was also disabled for a few minutes before we noticed and could reactivate them; I believe the Hunter is here, and she brought allies."

Johnson piped up again. "I invited a few friends over, hope ya don't mind…"

"Does the word quiet mean ANYTHING to you mammals?!" Ridley was quickly losing his temper.

There was a brief moment of silence; no doubt the Pirate commanders were hesitant to speak lest they incite the wrath of their monstrous general. Finally, he sighed loudly.

"I suppose it cannot be helped. We did prepare for this contingency, after all; we knew this might happen sooner or later. Initiate Procedure Epsilon Beta. Science Teams and research materials first. I will coordinate our defenses in the time remaining."

Samus and the Chief had neared the top of the stairwell, close enough that they could barely see onto the top floor, which held the forward command center. Ridley and his three executives stood in front of a large window that opened onto the canyon below, a handful of Pirate Troopers around them, while Sergeant Johnson stood confined in a large glass specimen container. The sounds of distant rumbling and frantic shouting could be heard from the canyon through the window. Continuing, Ridley pointed to the first of the commanders, who wore little armor and was obviously assigned to managerial duties far from the front lines.

"Stay here and keep an eye on the human. Once the first ship is prepared for departure, see to it that he is delivered there intact."

The commander nodded in confirmation, and the Pirate general turned to the other two subordinates, both of whom wore heavy armor and carried high-tech weaponry. Ridley extended an open hand to one of them, which held the stolen Index.

"Take good care of this, commander; keep it with you until the first transport is ready, then deliver it personally."

The Pirate commander saluted as he took the Index. "I will see it done, Lord-" He was cut off by the sound of a massive explosion coming from the canyon.

"General!" One of the Troopers shouted, pointing towards the canyon. The last barricade had just been demolished, and a Scarab walker was stepping over its debris. The Pirate general growled as his eyes narrowed.

He pounded an intercom button on a nearby console and his shrieking voice echoed throughout the base. "All Squads to the main entrance, reserves included! Prepare to engage the enemy!" Spreading his massive wings, he dove out the window towards the Scarab, the Troopers following after him.

As the two armored commanders left the room, Samus turned to the Chief and said "If we're going to save Johnson and reclaim the Index, now would be the time to do it."

"Don't have to tell me twice."

***

The executive Pirate commander paced back and forth in front of Johnson's container, casting nervous glances out the window at the battle below. Ridley's chilling shrieks echoed off the canyon walls as he circled the Scarab, the Covenant walker stumbling back and forth as its pilot attempted to aim the Scarab's devastating main cannon at the elusive target while at the same time trying to avoid flattening comrades.

Johnson caught his attention, his voice taking an unusually somber and serious tone. "When I get outta here, you're gonna be dead, you know that?"

The Pirate growled at him. "You humans talk too much. I fail to see how you're going to kill me when the next time you're let out of that cell, you'll be lobotomized."

"I never said I was the one who was gonna kill ya." The sergeant said with a bit of a smirk, his eyes not on the Pirate but instead staring past him. The commander had a brief glimpse of the Master Chief aiming a Battle Rifle at his head reflected in the glass of the specimen container before a gunshot stained that glass with his blood.

"You kids sure took your sweet time getting here. Ain't had nothin to look at but bug-eyed freaks and lizard face." Johnson said as Samus pulled up the controls to unlock the container.

_Sorry, traffic was terrible._ Cortana replied with a small laugh. The container popped open and the sergeant stepped out, calmly adjusting his hat. Before he could get past the Chief, however, the Spartan placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You alright, Johnson?"

Johnson nodded. "Not the best day I've ever had, but you give me a gun and something to fire it at, I'll be doin' a whole lot better."

_Then I've got good news for you. We've got a Pelican undergoing repairs in Hangar 7 and some marines who could use your help defending it._

The sergeant's smile broadened. "Oh yeah? I should go show those young bucks how it's done." He noticed the Chief offering him a pistol and waved it off. "I spotted an armory when they brought me in, about a floor down. It's loaded with stolen hardware, both ours and Covenant; I'll just pop on down there and see what kinds of new toys are waiting for me. You guys coming?"

Samus's eyes were trained on the door the armored commanders had left through. "Sorry, but we've got some unfinished business to take care of."

"Ah, right, that Index thing. Well, we'll try not to leave without you!" Johnson waved them off as he disappeared down the stairwell. The Chief watched him go, something that didn't escape Samus' notice.

"Feeling any better?"

He nodded. "Much."

***

In the canyon below, Ridley was bouncing back and forth between annoyed frustration and a bloodlust-filled elation. After their last major confrontation, the Covenant commanders had been given one primary objective before the battle had begun; if Ridley appears, do whatever it takes to kill him. They were trying their best not to disappoint. As soon as the dragon-like Pirate general had entered the battle, the Covenant gathered up and threw everything they had at him. As he sat perched on the Scarab, Banshees circled around him like irritating flies, and the Covenant artillery had been launching an endless barrage at him. His Phazon-powered Meta armor had absorbed the brunt of their attacks, but he could still feel them, and he could feel his rage building by the minute.

His claws raked the sky as he attempted to swat down the Banshees, crippling some, but the survivors of his attacks continued their assault with unusual persistence. As the Scarab beneath them annihilated another Pirate fortification with its devastating beam, he knew what his priorities had to be; leading these troops was his responsibility, and he would be damned if he allowed his battle fury to keep him from fulfilling it. Ducking under a fresh Scarab salvo, he dug his claws into the top of the Scarab's hull. Drawing upon his massive strength, further enhanced by the cybernetic Meta implants, Ridley slowly but surely pried part of the Scarab's top layer off. The Scarab pilot's last sight was that of Ridley poking his large head into the hole he had made and filling the walker's main compartment with incinerating flames.

The imposing Scarab shuddered, hung in the air for a moment, and then slowly came crashing down to fill the canyon with its charred husk. Ridley stood at full height over the wreckage, wings and limbs outstretched, and let out an ear-piercing roar of triumph that gave pause even to the most fearless of Covenant commanders. Rarely had the Pirate general ever felt so alive, the thrill of a predator who had just toppled the most challenging of prey filling his body; so great was his euphoria that he almost didn't notice his communication implant buzzing loudly, providing almost as much irritation as the Banshees had earlier. His subordinates were calling for him, he realized as his eyes narrowed; they would pay dearly for interrupting this wonderful moment of his.

***

Of course, it was unlikely that they would live to receive their general's wrath; the second commander pressed the communicator frantically with one hand while firing a prototype Shock Coil with the other; the prototype's primary flaw, its lack of a homing capability, was made painfully obvious to its intended target, Samus, as she was easily able to sidestep many of the rapid-firing weapon's shots. At the same time, the first commander was furiously firing his Battle Hammer at the Master Chief in an attempt to keep the Spartan at bay while he stuffed the Index into a nearby compartment and pound out a computer command. The Chief side-stepped around the Battle Hammer's explosive shells and fired his rifle in response as he approached the Pirate. Most of the bullets struck only the commander's armor, but a few shots hit home, as the Pirate fell to one knee. As he came within range of the Pirate commander, the Chief pulled back his fist and landed a brutal left punch in the staggered Pirate's chest; the commander flew backward and through a nearby window. The doomed Pirate screamed during its several-story fall, but the Chief was more interested in what he saw through the window; the opposite end of the canyon, at the end of which stood a large and vaguely familiar structure.

"The Control Room." He said aloud absentmindedly.

_Chief, the Index!_ Cortana reminded him.

He quickly went back to the compartment and pulled it open; but the Index was gone. Samus noticed the situation, and her eyes turned to the Pirate commander who had just recently become an impromptu pincushion due to her Needle Missiles. She kicked him lightly with her foot, eliciting a groan and a shudder from the fallen Pirate.

"Where did your friend there send the Index? Tell me, and I'll make sure your end is quick."

Blood splattered out onto the floor as the Pirate coughed to draw in air. "Heh…that conduit…leads to the…upper level. But you're too…*cough* too…" His words trailed off as he breathed his last. Samus turned to the Chief.

"The second floor, Chief."

_I saw an elevator in the forward command center, let's move!_

The two super soldiers ran back the way they came, but stopped dead in their tracks upon reach the command center. While it had been empty when they had left, it was no longer in that same state.

Ridley's eyes narrowed as he flashed his sharp fangs in a wicked grin. "Well well… if it isn't Ms. Aran. What a pleasant surprise."


	15. Rumble in the Control Room

Chapter 15: Rumble in the Control Room

The Pirate general's eyes jumped back and forth between the bounty hunter and the Spartan. "Well, it looks like they managed to keep you from getting the Index. At least those fools did something right."

Samus leveled her arm cannon to Ridley's face. "Regardless of our past, Ridley, I can't let you have the Index. You don't know what this Halo is capable of…"

Ridley almost doubled over in a bout of long, loud, shrieking laughter.

"OF COURSE I DO." He said when he looked up again, sounding almost insulted. "Do you take my brethren and I for fools, Hunter? It did not take us long after our arrival to discern the true nature of this ring world. At first, we were…appalled; to think, a device that wipes out all life in a radius spanning light-years! What idiots this world's creators were, we said!"

"But then we got to thinking…" Ridley continued as his eyes narrowed and a malicious grin spread across his face. "What if such a power could be contained, focused, taking effect only on a specific area of our determination? Imagine it, Hunter, if you will; the most heavily fortified planets in Federation space, and the Federation's mightiest fleets, wiped clean of all personnel. Like the chemical weapons of our glorious forebears, our enemies would be annihilated, leaving their technology, materials and information behind for us to take at our leisure. But there would be no toxic waste to clean up, and our victims would be gone in a flash of light, as if they had never existed. We knew that we needed to claim this world's secrets for our own."

The faint rumbling of a ship's engines could be heard in the distance. "But, of course, the natives are restless, and we don't have the time to finish our research here. Which is why, even as we speak, our Science Teams are evacuating, taking all that we have learned and all the weaponry we have obtained during our time here back to High Command. The Federation has a fight on its hands, without a doubt. But that Index is the key to our ability to create our own Halo devices; it is the keystone to all of its functionality."

"Yet another reason why I can't let you have it, conveniently enough." Samus responded without lowering her weapon.

Ridley's devilish smile persisted. "Naturally. I knew that, sooner or later, you would come to stop us, Hunter. In fact, I've come to look forward to our deadly little dances. You're the only opponent who can still give me a challenge."

The Master Chief, tired of being left out of the conversation, raised his own weapon. "Ready to add me to that list?"

The Pirate general turned to face the Spartan. "Ah yes, the infamous 'Demon'. You really think you are a match for me, little human? You may be a terror to the Covenant, but to me, you are but a big fish in a small pond. You're about to join the big leagues, boy…think you can survive the experience?"

"Just try me."

"Oh, I think I'll try you alright, just the way I like my humans…" Ridley said, a bright red glow beginning to shine from the back of his throat. The two super soldiers just barely managed to leap out of the way as Ridley's deadly plasma beam seared the air and left scorch marks on the wall behind them. "…toasted."

The walls of the command center echoed with Ridley's shrieks and Samus struggled to ignore them as she tried to formulate a plan. Trying to punch through the thick armor that covered most of his already tough hide was pointless, she knew that much from their previous encounters. The mouth was vulnerable, but seeing as half the time it was open he was breathing out searing flames, that wasn't a reliable option. That meant that his only real weakness was a small plate on his chest; as the bounty hunter had discovered during her initial battle with Meta Ridley, the Pirates were unable to graft armor to that area due to an earlier injury, and thus had covered the opening up with a metal plate. If they could dislodge it, Samus' Wavebuster could do the rest, wrecking havoc on both circuitry and organs.

She leaned out from behind the console she was hiding behind and started to call out "Chief, I've got a…" but before she could say "plan" she noticed that her Spartan companion had already leapt out with guns blazing. She quietly placed a hand to the forehead area of her helmet for a moment before whipping out her Grapple Beam, hooking her wayward ally, and yanking him back moments before Ridley incinerated the spot he had been standing on.

"Hey, what was that for?" he said indignantly as he slid next to Samus.

"Chief, Ridley is not someone we can just overpower; we're going to need to strategize if we're going to live through this."

"So what's our strategy, then?" The Chief said as he stood up and brushed himself off.

Quickly, Samus explained the tiny flaw on Ridley's chest armor. "So we blow that open and you can zap him to hell, correct?"

"Correct."

"Works for me, there's just one thing you're gonna have to do for me."

Samus blinked. "What?"

"Move."

The Chief tackled her down, causing a swipe from Ridley aimed at both their heads, who had taken the few moments to get above their hiding place, to slash harmlessly at the air. Both super soldiers rolled across the ground, landed on their feet, and leapt away to avoid Ridley's searing Plasma Beam.

The Chief once again charged right in, but this time with purpose. Firing at Ridley's chest rapidly, the Spartan rolled under another claw swipe, and jumped over the Pirate general's sweeping tail as Ridley followed his slash's momentum. As Ridley turned back around, the Chief aimed a plasma grenade at the Pirate's chest. The grenade latched on as expected, but as the energy from the explosion dissipated, he was disappointed to see that the armor was completely undamaged. He noticed another incoming claw a second too late, and wasn't able to step out of the way fast enough to avoid being thrown across the room. He hit the opposite wall hard and stumbled slightly as he regained his footing, his armor sparking as it hurried to restore his energy shielding.

Shaking his head, he said quietly "I'm gonna need some more firepower." His gaze turned to the stairwell, where the armory Johnson had mentioned waited.

Meanwhile, Samus' previous encounters with Ridley served her well; small steps she took placed her just outside of Ridley's reach with his attacks, allowing her to send Missiles and charged Plasma Beam shots back almost unimpeded. This being the third (or was it fourth? She was having a hard time keeping track.) time she'd faced the massive Pirate general in battle, she was comfortable in her knowledge of his capabilities, able to keep her mind entirely focused on bringing Ridley down. She was so focused, in fact, that it took her a few minutes to notice that the Master Chief had disappeared. Judging by the way she was looking around instead of keeping her attention on him, Ridley guessed at her intent and chuckled.

"Trying to find your friend? I think maybe he abandoned you, Hunter."

Samus knew that he wouldn't run out on a situation like this, but still, where was he? She'd seen him take a hard hit earlier…was he injured? Crippled? She shook such doubts from her mind; she would just have to finish this herself, and if he was injured, she could get him help once Ridley had been dealt with.

Ridley took her hesitation as a chance to try and bite her head off, but she wasn't so preoccupied that she couldn't see it coming and duck out of the way, firing off a few Missiles in response.

The Pirate general shrugged off the blows and glared at his opponent. "Haah, you think you've got me all figured out, don't you? Let's see how you well you do if I throw something new into the mix, eh?"

Ridley reached down to the compartments on his lower torso that drop bombs while he flies. When he thrust his hands forward, he threw out large handfuls of bombs, decimating the area around Samus, leaving only her tiny spot unscathed. Before the explosions dissipated and before she could move out of the way, Ridley's Plasma Beam reached through the smoke and debris filling the area, pushing her back against the wall. The Pirate general quickly followed his attacks up by charging forward and pinning Samus against the wall with one of his massive claws.

Ridley grinned. "The Chief was the smart one; he ran away rather than face my might."

"Hey, I didn't run away…" the Spartan called out, right before a rocket slammed against the side of Ridley's face. "…I just went to get some bigger guns."

He had indeed, as he was now hefting the aforementioned rocket launcher, a Covenant Fuel Rod Cannon, a Brute Shot, and enough ammo for all three to make any pyromaniac giddy.

Ridley shrieked in pain, and Samus took the opportunity to toss a Super Missile into his open mouth, forcing him to relinquish his grip on her as he stumbled backward. The two super soldiers unleashed a barrage of explosives on the Pirate general, until finally the tiny panel, almost indistinguishable from the rest of his chest armor, came flying off. Her opportunity made, Samus switched over to her Wave Beam, charged up a fully powered Wavebuster, and let loose. The beam of purple electricity lanced its way into Ridley's chest…and had no effect.

"What?? But…"

The Pirate general let out one of his loudest bouts of shrieking laughter yet. "Surprised, Hunter? Did you really think I would leave myself with such an obvious vulnerability for long?" He patted his chest. "I've had the Science Team add a layer of insulation to my outer shell. The additional protection it provides is little…but it keeps me fully protected from your electrical abilities."

Ridley leapt up, taking the two by surprise, landing on top of Samus and pinning her to the floor with his foot. The Chief sent his last rocket into the Pirate general's head, but before he could switch to something else, Ridley grabbed him in one massive claw and lifted him into the air. He held the Spartan in front of his face and glared angrily at him.

"You. I had hoped to save you until after I had killed the Hunter and use your corpse to put the fear back into the Covenant, but you are proving to be a much larger irritation than I had expected!"

The Pirate general opened his mouth wide and leaned forward to snap the Spartan in half with his jaws, but the Chief thrust out his empty rocket launcher, propping Ridley's large jaws open. Ridley was caught by surprise and the Master Chief took the opportunity to pull out his Fuel Rod Cannon and pump an entire clip into Ridley's open mouth. The Pirate general staggered backward, dropping the Chief and shrieking in pain. Samus pushed herself to her feet and leapt up into Ridley's face.

"You may have insulation on the outside, but I doubt you have it inside."

The bounty hunter poured every ounce of Wavebuster that she had into Ridley's gaping maw and down his throat. Ridley's shrieks echoed throughout the base and out onto the canyon below. He stumbled backward, throwing Samus away with his thrashing, against the open window and disappeared out of it as he fell.

As the shrieks were punctuated by a soft explosion far below them, a silence fell over the wrecked command center. The Chief helped Samus to her feet.

"So much for him."

"Don't bet on it." She replied. "That's at least the third time I've 'killed' him. He'll be back."

The Chief nodded. "Then let's not do that again anytime soon, alright? I think I've had my fill of space dragons for awhile."

The two made their way to the elevator to the upper level, thankfully spared from the fighting due to its distance from the battle.

"Finally, nothing standing between us and the Index."

"To be honest, I'll be glad when we're done with all of this." The Chief said.

They reached the upper level, alerting them to a sound that was previous unheard; a Phantom dropship hovering nearby. The two raced into the next room, where the wall had been blown out and a Phantom sat just outside. The receiving end of the transporter that had been on the lower level stood open behind a Covenant black ops team, its Elite commander clutching the Index in his hand.


	16. Let’s Do the TimeWarp Again

Chapter 16: Let's Do the Time-Warp Again

"Stop the Demons!" The black-ops commander shouted, his grip on the Index tightening as he dove for the nearby Phantom.

His troops responded immediately. The lone Grunt of the group sprayed shards from his Needler furiously, a trio of Jackals went into formation, and an Elite whipped out his Energy Sword and charged. The whole group was positioned to prevent the two super soldiers from getting a clear shot at the Phantom, which meant, as Samus noted with frustration, they would need to go through them to get to the Index. She rushed forward, the Master Chief not far behind.

The Elite was their first obstacle, and he aimed a powerful vertical slash at Samus' torso. She twisted her body in mid-run and lifted her arm up so that the energized blade just barely missed her. Without breaking stride, the Elite turned his attention to the Chief and swung with the intention of taking the Spartan's head off. The Chief ducked under the blow, his right hand briefly flashing to his waist, and brought that hand up to sock the Elite in the head, sending him reeling. As the Elite staggered, the Chief snatched his Sword out of his hand and kept running; the Elite realizing too late that the hand he'd been struck with had held a live plasma grenade.

The Jackals were next. Two stood with their shields side-by-side, while a third hid behind them and aimed a Beam Rifle in the tiny gap between the shields. Normally, a Missile or two would be enough to disrupt the shields, but Samus had drained her supply Wavebustering Ridley. She raised her hand with the Grapple Beam attached, but a glancing shot from the Beam Rifle broke her lock and shook her vision up. As the sniper prepared a second shot, the Chief leapt in front of her, slashing at both shields with his newly acquired Energy Sword. They stumbled backwards with the force of the blow, exposing the undefended Jackal, who glanced up from his scope in time to see Samus aiming her Arm Cannon at his face.

The Grunt was closest to the opening that the Phantom hovered next to, and while the Chief was taking care of the stunned Jackals, Samus turned her attention to the Phantom and the Elite commander that was boarding it. The diminutive Covenant soldier tossed aside his Needler, drew a plasma grenade in each hand, and charged forward with the activated explosives held high above his head, screaming at the top of his lungs. The bounty hunter was momentarily taken aback by the unexpected kamikaze attack, but quickly recomposed herself and aimed a shot at the charging Grunt's leg. The Grunt fell on his face and held the grenades as far forward as he could before being consumed by the double explosion.

Samus momentarily wondered what purpose this tiny creature's doomed suicide attempt could possibly serve, but she knew once the energy from the grenades dissipated; the Phantom's side hatch was safely closed and the alien dropship was flying towards the Halo's Control Room. The Master Chief ran up next to Samus, pulling out his Fuel Rod Cannon as he went, and emptied an entire clip at the Phantom. Only one of the shots hit, however, and it wasn't enough to bring the dropship down.

"Great." He said. "Now what?"

_Whatever we do, we've got to make it quick! He's got a free ticket to the Control Room, and the rest of the Covenant will be here anytime now!_

They were silent for a moment in thought, before a light went off in Samus' head and she turned to her companion.

"Chief, how's your throwing arm?"

"Pretty good, why?"

***

Inside the Phantom, the black-ops commander held the Index high for his remaining squad members to see.

"Behold, comrades! At long last, the Sacred Icon is within our grasp, and there is nothing that can stand between us and the site of consecration! Not even the Demons can catch up to us before we reach that holy chamber! Rejoice, my brethren, for the Great Journey will soon-!"

He was interrupted by an explosion that tore a small hole in the side hatch of the Phantom, and Samus in her Morph Ball form rolled past the gathered group and returned to human form, standing between the Covenant soldiers and the main engines. These Covenant weren't members of black-ops for nothing, however; as soon as she landed, each one had his weapon out and trained on her.

"It was foolish of you to try and follow us, Demon." The commander said. "In these close quarters, you cannot possibly slay us all before we rend you limb from limb."

Samus didn't answer, but instead turned and pointed her Arm Cannon at the Phantom's engines, her Plasma Beam ready and charged.

***

The entire back end of the Phantom was consumed in a violent explosion, and without engines, the ship plummeted towards the ground. It crashed on its side, hurling the majority of its passengers clear in the same fashion as a car passenger being hurled from his seat during a collision. Samus' Morph Ball calmly rolled its way out of the wreckage, and she stood up to survey the destruction she had caused. What she didn't expect to see was the black-ops commander, banged up but otherwise in good shape, running as fast as he could towards the distant Control Room.

She cursed to herself and started running after him, when a beam of energy lanced across the sky overhead, striking the fleeing commander through the head. Samus turned to face the Pirate base and saw the Chief standing in the opening he had hurled her from, waving calmly, a Beam Rifle in his hand. Smirking, she paused for a moment to absorb a bit of remaining energy from the crashed Phantom in hopes of regaining a few Missiles before running towards the fallen Elite. The Index was still clutched fiercely in his cold fingers, and Samus had to pry them away, but the effort was worth it. She let out a sigh of relief; the Index was back in safe hands, Ridley had been defeated (for now, at least) and the Space Pirates were withdrawing from Halo. But she was about to think to herself that she was glad the whole thing was over…but she hesitated. Turning back to face the Pirate Base, she knew she was right to do so.

With the defeat of Ridley, the Pirate forces who had been trying to hold off the Covenant attack knew that this was a battle they couldn't win. A cloud of Pirate forces, including both Aerotroopers, troop transports and dropships, emerged from the top of the Pirate base, closely pursued by the Covenant's air forces. The damaged ships that fell out of the sky spilled out angry soldiers, with Covenant ground forces rushing to meet them. The open stretch of plain between the Pirate base and the Control Room quickly erupted into chaos, and it occurred to Samus that standing in their midst holding the one object that they all wanted was probably the worst possible position she could be in at the moment.

A similar thought raced through the Chief's mind, and it was only reinforced when Cortana shouted _She's going to get torn apart down there!_

Squadrons of Banshees were passing by his opening, chasing down scattered Aerotroopers, and he leapt onto the next one that came close enough. Unapologetically disengaging its pilot, he flew it towards his stranded companion. It didn't take the fallen pilot's comrades to notice that his ship had changed hands, however, and plasma fire filled the air around the Chief's stolen flier. He piloted the failing Banshee as close to the ground as he could before leaping out, allowing the fighter to crash several feet in front of him, and started running.

Samus, meanwhile, was quickly running out of comfort space. She had hoped the Pirates and Covenant would focus on each other rather than the lone bounty hunter, but both sides were seemingly content with attacking anything they could see that wasn't an ally. Her Arm Cannon blazed constantly, blasting apart anyone that got close to her; a Pirate Trooper here, a Brute there, an Aerotrooper above her, a Drone about to land on her back. When someone roughly pressed itself against her back, she instinctively charged her Plasma Beam to burn the offender's head off, but she stopped when she heard the Chief's voice.

"We've really gotta stop meeting like this."

Samus smirked and nodded grimly. "Like this? Yes, I'll agree with you there."

"Any ideas?"

"We could try throwing me again, but I doubt that would accomplish anything."

"Cortana?"

_I've already run the calculations on about a dozen different possible scenarios. None of them put our odds of survival beyond 5%._

"Do any of those scenarios involve us standing and fighting?" The Chief said.

_Of course._

"Because those are always my favorite plans. Might as well go out with a bang."

Samus nodded again. "My sentiments exactly."

They stood back to back, once again with legions of Covenant on one side and hordes of Space Pirates on the other. Their weapons fired almost nonstop; Plasma Beam blasts from Samus, Brute Shot grenades from the Chief. Once he'd run out of ammo for the Brute Shot, the Chief took a Pirate Trooper's head off with it and pulled out his Fuel Rod Cannon again. Once that was empty, the Chief reached his last weapon, a measly pistol, but stopped before he could draw it.

"_Hey! You kids need a lift?"_

"Johnson?!"

Pelican Delta 063, looking like a bizarre mishmash of Covenant, Pirate and UNSC engineering, came streaking out of the sky to hover next to the two super soldiers. The chaingun turret on the rear end mowed down Covenant, while the newly installed missile launcher on the front sent Pirate flying. Johnson stuck his head out of the back.

"Welcome to Delta Raven Express! We haul your ass out of the fire, guaranteed or your money back!"

_We're not paying you anything!_ Cortana shouted with a laugh as Samus and the Chief hopped on board.

"Yeah, well, it's a good thing too, cause if we don't get outta here, we're screwed ten ways till Tuesday. Private!" Johnson shouted towards the cockpit. "Step on it!"

As the Pelican rose into the air and Dom, Cole and Fenix fired like mad to hold off any ambitious pursuers, Johnson led the two super soldiers up the cockpit.

"Hey Baird, how's the old girl holdin up?"

"Pretty good," Baird said as he wrestled with the controls and enemy fire filled the air around them "considering she wasn't designed to use about half of her current parts, and we're getting shot at by half the Covenant in the friggin GALAXY!"

Johnson turned to the Chief. "I radioed on ahead to In Amber Clad. They're coming to rendezvous with us. Figured anyone gutsy enough to chase after our little Frankenstein Pelican will think twice about messing with a UNSC frigate."

Indeed, someone on the Covenant side had figured out that the Index they'd sent a black-ops team to retrieve was now in the hands of the fleeing humans, and had sent an entire flight of Banshees after them. Delta shuddered under the fire of their pursuers as they flew, but that ended abruptly when the shadow of In Amber Clad passed over them.

Samus let out a heavy sigh and leaned back against the nearest wall; it was safe enough to say it now.

"I'm glad this whole thing's over with."

***

Delta 063 half-landed half-crashed into In Amber Clad's landing bay. As Johnson and Fenix's squad exited to the enthusiastic cheers of the ship's marines, Samus held up the Index.

"I trust it'll be safe with you?"

_Sure._ Cortana said. _I'm starting a collection of these things._

Samus gladly handed the Master Chief the Index and hopped out of the Pelican. Johnson turned from Miranda Keyes and patted Samus on the back.

"Girl, you sure know how to throw a party. I haven't had this much fun since Paris IV."

She looked at him uneasily. "Despite getting captured and having to fight your way out of two armies at once?"

Johnson smirked. "All in a day's work, lady."

Commander Keyes pushed Johnson aside politely. "We'll have time for your macho performances later, Sergeant. For now, Samus, is there anything we can do to repay you for your help? I seriously doubt we'd have gotten out of this so well without it."

"Thank you, but this was my fight as well. Not to steal your act, Sergeant, but it WAS all in a day's work."

Keyes nodded. "Sure we can't at least give you a ride back to Earth? You and the Chief have more than earned some R and R."

"Again, thank you, but the Space Pirates are headed back home with a mountain of stolen technology and research to match. It won't be long before my services are in higher demand than ever before. I need to get going."

Keyes nodded again, but this time much more solemnly. "If you insist. But don't be afraid to come looking for us if you ever need the help; I'd be happy to spare you a few favors."

The crowd of marines scrambled over themselves to let Samus through to her ship on the other side of the landing bay. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of her faithful vessel; there is, after all, no place like home. She was about to leap up to the entrance hatch when a voice behind her made her pause.

"I'm gonna miss having you watch my back."

She turned to the Master Chief standing behind her and grinned. "Likewise."

He seemed to hesitate with his next words. "…You think maybe we can do this again sometime?"

"You won't get any argument from me, Chief. I don't usually do second dates, but I think I'll make this the exception."

"It's a deal then?" The Chief said, extending his hand.

Samus stared at it for a moment, but then responded in kind. "Deal." And they shook on it.

The bounty hunter leapt up the top of her ship, and the Chief called up after her. "And hey, maybe next time I can come over to your place and we can kill people there!"

She laughed. "I look forward to it!"

Samus disappeared inside her ship, and as In Amber Clad left Halo's atmosphere and turned towards UNSC space, Samus' ship quietly lifted off, turned in the opposite direction, and flew off.

The Master Chief stood and watched her go, remaining still even when the vessel was out of sight. After a few moments of this, Cortana hesitantly caught his attention.

_Chief? Commander Keyes will want to see you for a debriefing…_

"I know, just…give me a few minutes." He searched his mind for that old tune, he was sure he'd heard it somewhere before. He started humming it to himself, even if he could barely remember the words.

"…_Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…here I am, stuck in the middle with you…yes I'm, stuck in the middle with you…"_


End file.
